Ripples in Time
by Countess Verona Dracula
Summary: Dracula is attempting to rewrite history. Van Helsing must go back to his forgotten past and stop him from changing it, but when he realizes that there may be a way to save Anna, will the mission be compromised...? FINISHED AT LAST!
1. Prologue: Out of Hell

Ripples in Time  
  
Disclaimer Alas, I own none of these characters! This is for purely entertainment purposes!  
  
WARNING! THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS! IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN VAN HELSING AND DON'T WISH THE ENDING SPOILED, DON'T READ IT!  
  
Summary Dracula is attempting to rewrite history by going back in time. Van Helsing must go back to his forgotten past and stop him from changing it, but when he realizes that there may be a way to save Anna, will the mission be compromised...?  
  
A/N Ah, I saw Van Helsing on opening night, HATED the ending but loved the rest of it! And now I am completely obsessed! So, this story popped into my head... I'm writing it on a whim, so it is very subject to change! Please no flames!

Prologue: Out of Hell  
  
The flames, in rainbow shades, scorched him angrily. He fought his way through them, ignoring the pain. His fury was so much hotter than the fires of Hell.  
Through the dizzying smoke and fires he walked, unwavering, unfazed by the howls of agony that always graced the bottommost pits of Hell; in fact, he drank the sound in like a fine claret. At last the blinding heat was gone and he entered into utter blackness and silence. He stood there, his limp, wet black hair hanging around his shoulders and his pale face full of grim anger.  
From somewhere in the unfathomable black, a sigh was heard, and then a voice:  
"You let him do it again, Vladislaus?" it said in a disappointed tone. Dracula bristled with rage, but said nothing. "And you've come to strike a bargain with me... again?" Still Dracula said nothing. "Well you could at least answer, I'm not being rhetorical." The voice quipped. A glaring Dracula proceeded to open his mouth and reveal a stub, still quite fresh, where his tongue had once been.   
"Oh, that's right, I had your tongue cut out to deprive you of the pleasure of hearing your own voice. Well, I'll just continue talking and assume your answers. I do, after all, know you so very well, Count Vladislaus Dracula. Gabriel Van Helsing killed you centuries ago, and you struck a bargain with me to go back as a vampire. And he killed you... again. And now you want to go back... again." Dracula nodded. The voice grew slightly cold for someone living in Hell. "Be thankful that I like you, Dracula. Be thankful that the sweet misery you wreak on Transylvania makes me giddy with glee. Because I will let you go back and replay this whole game..." Dracula smiles his wicked smile, but the voice continued on. "But it will be on my terms." There was a tangy, metallic taste in Dracula's mouth, and he when he swore at the foulness of it, he realized that his tongue was back.  
"What terms have you?" Dracula asked.  
"You are going to go back." The voice said simply. Dracula's face twisted into one of confusion. "Very far back. I'm just curious to see if you won't mess it up.. the first time it happened." Needless to say, the Count was very shocked. Before he could react, everything blurred away into lights and sounds, before blending into a bouquet of utter agony...A/N Okay, that's all I have so far! School is really hectic right now, so I can't say when I'll have time to continue, but please read and review! 


	2. Chapter 1: A Time for Lessons and a Less...

A/N Okay, I'm sorry if this is too long, but what can I say? First an orthodontist appointment then an hour of Algebra. Who wouldn't go nuts?! Mostly it's a lot of important explanation , so I promise the rest of the story won't be THIS long! And how can yall complain if it's Carl who's doing most of the talking?

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Chapter 1  
  
A Time for Lessons (and a lesson about time)  
  
The cloaked and armed figure approaching the Church seemed to be the stuff of legend: the tall, dark, muscular, silently tragic hero. Ironically, he was also the stuff of 'Wanted- for murder' posters. Which he considered himself to be, the hero or the murderer, was very much up in the air. He walked towards the confessional slowly, taking a deep and steadying breath before entering.  
"Forgive-" He began, but the priest cut him off.  
"Gabriel Van Helsing there is no time." He said hoarsely.   
Van Helsing blinked several times and followed the priest- whom he did not recognize- down the secret staircase. When they reached the secret chambers, he noticed that everything was in a state of wild turmoil. People were rushing around, flipping through books, shouting across the room to each other. It seemed that in the week he'd been in Paris the Order had lost it's mind.  
"What's going on? Where's Cardinal Jinette?" Van Helsing asked.  
"I was only told to await you in the confessional. I do not understand fully what is going on. You must speaking with Friar Carl urgently." The priest, who he now saw to be quite young and most likely untrained, was desperate. Van Helsing nodded and set off briskly to find Carl.  
The Friar was in his usual place surrounded by his beloved inventions. He was rushing around, his goggles forgotten on top of his head. As Van Helsing watched him, he saw that his hair had not been combed in at least two days, nor had he slept in as much time.  
"Carl? What's going on?" He asked. Carl started and turned.  
"Thank God Van Helsing you've come back from France. Something has happened!" He cried fearfully.  
"Most people curse God when they see I've arrived, and I can see that something ahs happened. WHAT happened?" Van Helsing said dryly.  
"Cardinal Jinette died. Simply stopped midsentence and DIED." Carl said in a bewildered voice.  
"I can understand the strife then, but it's not as though he was a young man, Carl. Why is everyone rushing around in a state of utter fear, like this was some sort of murder mystery and the killer was still amongst us?" Van Helsing said with a frown. Carl sighed and shook his head.  
"He didn't just DIE, Gabriel. There was no body. One moment he was talking to us, and then the next he seized up and fell over. I rushed to him, but there was no wound. And then he simply vanished. It was as though he had been erased." Carl shook his head again. "The first place I started looking was his genealogy. When I looked at his family tree, he wasn't even on it. In fact, the entire tree had been erased all the way up to his ancestors from around 400 years ago, and those are the distant ones who never became involved in the Order. I ran an analysis of the page, and there wasn't even a trace of ink on the page below the ancestors that weren't erased. It was like nothing had ever been there. I checked all other records we had of him: doctor's records, church records, school records, and got the same results. According to them he had never even existed." The Friar began to putter around again, mixing liquids and powders, but Van Helsing suspected there was more coming. Surely enough, Carl soon began his talk anew.  
"So, I did some research on the time up to which his family tree had been erased. It was around the time Dracula was first killed." Van Helsing felt his blood turn to boiling sludge with a mix between fear and rage. "Then I started looking into other recent and mysterious killings. You know how we receive multiple newspapers from various countries, correct?" Van Helsing nodded. "And how I keep in contact with scientists around the world?"  
"Yes, you have a bizarre obsession with pen pals that worries me. Please continue." Van Helsing said through gritted teeth, putting his hands down on the table. He instantly flinched and recoiled as he put his weight on his hands; Carl noticed, but said nothing.  
"Well, in the newspapers there were reports of identical killings. I discovered that most of them were important scientists involved with the Order. The rest were those who supplied us with chemicals and other materials necessary to our continuing research. At that time I arrived at the conclusion that somehow Dracula was alive and back in the past, trying to destroy those that preceded the Order." Carl looked up. "Those that would one day help you."  
"How do we stop him if he's in the past?" Van Helsing asked quietly, almost to himself. He began to get deeply worried. Carl was the only friend he had; what if Dracula went after him next?  
"That's what I asked myself." Carl replied. "Then I decided to pay a visit to an old friend, a powerful Wiccan friendly to the Order. When I got there, Dracula was halfway through killing her ancestors. Before she died, she managed to pass on a helpful hint: the name of a book in her library. I managed to hunt it down; it contained the names of several chemicals and powders that might be able to transport one back in time. I've been working endlessly on perfecting the formula, since much of the text was gone. And now-" He held up a glass vial with a murky black liquid in it. "I think I've got it, just in time for your arrival." Van Helsing took the vial.  
"I suppose then that the question becomes which of us has more impeccable timing: you or I." He mused aloud. "Please tell me I don't have to drink this?" The Friar took the vial back.  
"No, you don't have to drink it." He said. He began packing up his implements. "Collect your weapons. You know what you need for Dracula and there are no new ones since you left." Van Helsing began to put on his weapons when a thought occurred to him.  
"But what I needed last time was a werewolf. You and I both know all too well that I am not a werewolf anymore." Van Helsing said in a voice full of quiet pain.  
"You forget: at the time you first killed him he was not a vampire. You'd simply be killing a human." Said Carl lightly.  
"SIMPLY? Killing another human is SIMPLE? I'm already branded a murderer for killing hideous, evil monsters. What will I be if I kill another human? Satan himself?" Gabriel shouted suddenly. He noticed that everyone heard, but no on stopped for him. No one stopped for his pain. He was just some stupid, emotionless, killing machine. A tool.  
"You are the left hand of God, Gabriel. No one would call you Satan." Carl said while he continued cleaning, and Van Helsing found himself calmed by his unobtrusive presence. He never asked what was wrong, but comforted him all the same. "And besides, you wouldn't have killed him in the first place if he hadn't done something wrong." Van Helsing simply nodded. "Alright, let's get going."  
Carl led him to the back rooms. They were old and usually unused except for those wishing seclusion and for dangerous experiments. The Friar walked up to a door that had another Friar in font of it.  
"Have you got it this time, Friar Carl?" he asked wearily. He too looked like he hadn't slept in a couple days.  
"I should." Carl turned to Van Helsing. "Friar Jonathon has been keeping guard here while I experiment with the different mixtures in case I get hurt. I've been testing them in this room or making new ones nearly round the clock for the past couple days, so neither of us have gotten much sleep." He opened the door and ushered Van Helsing in. "Jonathon, don't open this door for ten minutes. No matter what. If we're gone when you open it... then pray for us. Pray that it works." Jonathon nodded.  
"Godspeed." He said. Carl smiled, then followed Van Helsing, closing and locking the door.

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A/N Believe it or not, this is actually only PART of the chapter. I'm cutting it into two because it's REALLY long. Anyways, tell me what you thought! Flames will be used to roast Carl's hair (and we don't want that, do we?) 


	3. Chapter 2: The Left Hand's Right Hand

A/N Okay, here's the tail-end of that chapter I posted earlier. I've only just started Chapter Three, and some reviews would make me want to write more. 

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Chapter Two:  
The Left Hand's Right Hand  
  
"Are we ready?" asked Van Helsing. The room they stood in was made entirely of stone, adorned only by a few not-so-reassuring scorch marks.  
"I hope so." replied Carl, facing Van Helsing. He held up the vial. "When I count to three, I'll smash this into the ground. The ensuing blast will not harm us, but send us back to the time we command. TO command it, we have to think about the time repeatedly... so, when I count to three, start thinking only of the words '400 years back.' Keep thinking it over and over again."  
"How do we get back to present time?" asked the Vampire Hunter.  
"We don't." Carl said slowly. "Before you panic, listen to me. We'll be immortal to time's ravages. We won't be able to die from old age; in fact, we won't age at all. SO, we'll just have to live out those 400 years in seclusion so we don't interrupt the flow of time with our presence."  
"How do you know this? Is it possible?" asked Van Helsing quickly. He was starting to like this harebrained scheme less and less with every second.  
"I don't know it. It's a theory. Look, before you panic, continue to listen! It may not be a proven theory, but at least it's very sound: how can we die before we are born? One our 'timelines' sync back up to this day, we'll start to age again and eventually die of good old age."  
"What's with all this 'we' stuff? Who said you were going?" The other asked, suspicious.  
"Honestly Van Helsing. Did you think I'd pass up the opportunity to see if this, possibly my greatest invention, worked? Besides, you need someone to look after you. Since Anna died, you haven't been careful. You haven't been even attempting to protect yourself from harm." Carl said with deep concern.  
"Don't worry so." Gabriel muttered darkly.  
"Isn't this a cause for worry?" Carl asked, peeling back Van Helsing's right sleeve with shocking force to reveal that the Hunter's arm was all gashed up. "You used to come back nigh untouched. I used to be able to work on my inventions in peace while you were gone, now I hardly get anything done from worrying about you. I _still_ haven't finished that automatic gun yet because of you...." He sounded ruffled.  
"And I _still_ don't see why I can't have one of those." Van Helsing mumbled.  
"It's not practical." Carl sighed. They'd been through this many times; Gabriel was like a child after a new toy, and utterly relentless.  
"It's not practical for me not to get killed?" he shot back.  
"Don't make me answer that. I wouldn't be worrying about this, the tenth almost fatal wound I'd have to bandage, if I cared about that. But I'm not going to bandage it now." Carl sighed.  
"And for a second there I thought there might be something between us..." Van Helsing sighed.  
"You git, I'm not bandaging it because I don't care, I'm not bandaging it because when we go back in time it will heal on it's own. You won't even have a scar." Carl quipped in his usual tone.  
"Oh good, I don't need anymore of those." Van Helsing said dryly, pulling his sleeve back down. "Carl, are you sure you want to risk this? I was around in some form or another 400 years ago, it shouldn't harm me. Are you sure this won't mess you up?"  
"Could I get more messed up? Besides, if something goes wrong with this and you get really mad at me, you might go back and try to kill my ancestors. I need to watch out for my own ass." Van Helsing smiled at Carl's likely unconscious curse. "And you may be the left hand of God, but what's a left hand without a right hand? You need one." Carl grinned cheerily, liking the newfound importance he had found for himself.  
"If I need a right hand so desperately, why the Hell did God send you?" Van Helsing asked sarcastically. Carl's laughter carried all the way through time as the glass smashed and they began to concentrate solely on the words '400 years back.'

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A/N Well, how was it? I'm not sure everything is accurate, (dates, etc.) so please politely tell me if something is wrong. I am also aware of the fact that Van Helsing might not be completely IC (I didn't have enough time for him to be moping in this chapter) but he'll start missing Anna real soon... ehehe... REVIEW!!


	4. Chapter 3: Much Confusion

A/n Wow, that is a record for me for reviews!! Thanks so much you guys:  
**TurtleGirl**: I'm glad you like the plot! I'm not so sure that they're in character, but if you think so!  
**pippinthehobbit():** Don't worry, I just had get all that explanation stuff out!! Every is slowing down greatly starting on this chapter!  
**HyperCaz**: I'm glad you think I hooked this one! I got your review early this morning, it really gave me a boost!  
**Lani()**: Thanks for the tip, and don't worry about the typo! It just proves you're human (as opposed to vampire... and I really have my doubts about some people... LOL)  
**Mythers**: Thanks for the encouragement!  
**Duce-Gemini**: Wow, I was really thinking Gabriel was really OOC, but I guess if two of you think that... thanks!  
**Feedbackgir**l: I'm very happy with this beginning, I'm glad you think so too!  
**Marah Valin**: Wow, I haven't heard from you since my LXG days! Thanks for the review!  
  
Without further adieu, here is chapter three! I can't remember if they said EXACTLY the circumstances in which Van Helsing and Dracula fought, so I'm going to be making a great deal of this up. Also, I'm not sure if they celebrated Christmas the same way we do, but I only use it for one simile so try not to kill me if I'm wrong! (oh, and this isn't a Carl/Van Helsing, since this chapter might throw that into question... eheheh....)

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Chapter Three:  
Much Confusion  
  
If Gabriel Van Helsing thought his life in the 1800's was Hell, he would have been at a loss as to what to call his newfound existence. Every inch of his body was painted in a fresh coat of pain. He was swallowed up with an inexplicable feeling of utter depression. He had absolutely no desire or will to do so much as to open his eyes.  
Carl, however, was filled with a kind of morbid excitement. Had it worked? Were they dead? Like a child waiting skittishly to go down for presents on Christmas, he hovered anxiously in-between the decision to either open his eyes or remain in the delicious state of exciting waiting and wondering. In the end, he decided to open his eyes.  
He was lying on his back, gazing up at the marbled heavens. The ground beneath him was bare, and as he turned his gaze, he could see that they were in a thicket. Judging by the sprigs of green in the bushes, it was spring.  
_Springtime? Then why am I so cold...?_ As the Friar sat up and happened to glance down at himself, his entire lack of clothing made itself apparent as the cause for his chill. Carl felt his stomach drop as he slowly turned his head to look over at Van Helsing. He barely suppressed a yelp as he turned away again quickly. The Hunter was attired similarly to the Friar: in nothing at all. Apparently, their transportation had deprived them of their clothing. Out of the corner of his eye, he examined Van Helsing again: he was breathing, but not awake. Carl began to panic. What if something was wrong with him? What if he was hurt internally or in a coma? Van Helsing was around five feet away from the smaller man, and he couldn't awaken him without moving any closer, which would involve looking at him. And he wasn't sure that God would look upon that as a good thing. Briefly he considered going in search of clothes, but he had no idea where they were and didn't want to leave Van Helsing alone. Praying that no awkward questions would be asked, Carl decided to try and wake him up.  
Slowly he edged closer. Closing his eyes, he reached out and tapped Van Helsing tentatively. The monster slayer did nothing. Carl tried nudging him, eyes still closed. Still there was no response. Several other methods were tried, all very logical: first a poke and a nudge, then a nudge and a poke. In gradual steps, the nudges and pokes grew more severe and in increasingly bizarre patterns; but there was still no response. Beginning to truly panic, Carl grabbed Van Helsing by his muscular shoulder and shook him violently.  
_"Van Helsing? Are you alright?"_ Carl shouted in a voice more panicked than he intended.  
Van Helsing sat bolt upright with a shout of surprise, then fell down trying to back away when he realized that neither he nor Carl had clothes on. Carl, startled by the abrupt movement from his friend, yelped and jumped back, then promptly threw himself back on the ground to avoid any more embarrassment. At that time, both men realized that there was a large, leafy bush at either end of the clearing, and chose to run to opposite ones and hide behind them.  
"What did you do Carl?" Van Helsing shouted from behind his hiding place.  
"I just woke up and thought something was wrong with you so I woke you up!" Carl shouted back meekly.  
"Well something is wrong with both of us... we don't have clothes!" Van Helsing retorted.  
"It's not my fault!" Carl cried back indignantly.  
"Your formula... your plan.... your fault! I don't have to be as smart as you to figure that out! Now why didn't you plan for this?" Van Helsing snapped.  
"I had more important things to worry about. I didn't stop to think about what to do if the time travel made us lose our clothes!" Carl quipped.  
"Don't you ever think worst case scenario when you're inventing?" Shot back the other.  
"Well, I put a lot of thought into _NOT GETTING US KILLED_! This doesn't quite rank up with that so I'm sorry I didn't worry about it!" Carl said, poking his head out from around the bush.  
"Well you're a creative man you might've thought of what to do in case thi-" Van Helsing suddenly shouted and fell out of the bush as a cloud of angry birds flew out of the surrounding bushes and trees and began to peck at the two men.  
Soon covered in bleeding scratches, several moments of shouting, dirt flinging, and cawing ensued before all was quiet again. Exhausted and irritated, the two flopped back down on the ground, eyes closed.  
"This Carl... is bad." Van Helsing said breathlessly.  
"Gabriel? Gabriel? Gabriel!" A sudden voice called from nearby. Van Helsing's blood froze; he knew that voice. Presently, the sound of hoofbeats could be heard. Van Helsing stood up and went to the edge of the thicket, peering out. He could see a rider on a black horse, not far away. As if by instinct, he knew his name:  
"Vlad! Over here!" He called without knowing what he was doing. The rider turned; yes, it was who he thought it was. The waving black hair, the face, the eyes, it was all the same. Except, as he noticed Gabriel Van Helsing, Vladislaus Dracula smiled quite happily and trotted over.  
"Gabriel! Good God! You're missing for nigh an hour and now I find you standing naked in a- oh." Vlad stopped short, his eyes wide, as he noticed also naked Carl, covered in sweat, just pulling himself to his feet. "Well, then... shall I leave you-"  
"No, Vlad, it's not what you think!" Van Helsing said desperately. "I... we...." He sighed. "It's complicated."  
"Ever you take me for the fool, Gabriel. I believe understand what is going on..." Dracula smiled that cocky smile. "I'll tell the others that I could not find you if you wish to be-"  
"No, please, just go get us some clothing! And don't tell... the others what you saw." He said pleadingly, hesitating when he said 'the others.'  
"Very well, I respect your wish for secrecy. Wouldn't do to have this get out, now would it? So many young girls would be so disappointed..." Dracula smiled. "I shall return with clothes forthwith." With that, he spurred his horse and was off.  
"What are you _doing_?" Carl hissed as soon as he was sure that Dracula couldn't hear them.  
"Succeeding where you failed. Getting us clothes." Van Helsing grumbled, going back to hiding behind the bush.  
"That's not what I mean! You just made friendly with Dracula!" Carl cried.  
"I-I don't know! It just came over me! And somehow, it felt natural... Like I'd known him forever..." Van Helsing trailed off, obviously agitated. He could not explain it. He felt like he knew Dracula... and not just as an enemy. It was almost like... he was talking to his best friend.  
There was no more conversation between the two for the twenty minutes it took Dracula to return with that same grin on his face and two pairs of clothes.  
"I hope that the clothes I brought for your friend will fit. I took them from James's bag, you know how he is a slight man. Will we have the pleasure of him returning with us?" Dracula raised his eyebrows, smiling still.  
"For the last time! What happened was not what you think!" Van Helsing hissed. No longer was he under any spell. This was Dracula, the vampire count who murdered without thought, who would've killed Anna...  
_If I hadn't gotten there first._ He thought bitterly.  
"How often I wish you would trust my words at face value." Dracula sighed, his face suddenly sad. The look left Van Helsing very bewildered. As Carl stumbled out of the thicket and into the open, Dracula spoke again. "I tied your horse over yonder. Your companion shall have to ride behind you." He said, gesturing to a nearby tree where a large black horse was tied. Van Helsing approached it cautiously. It's saddle was different from those he was used to, and Carl didn't seem at all happy in it either, but it served the purpose of riding behind Dracula.  
"Do you know where he is taking us?" Carl shouted.  
"No. He said something about companions waiting for us, that's all I know!" Gabriel shouted back.  
The ride took only twenty minutes or so, and Dracula slowed as they came into a small dell.  
"No more talk now." He said in a hushed, almost afraid voice. "Keep a wary eye."  
"I don't see what's wrong with this dell. Quite nice actually." Carl mused after a moment of silence.  
"SHH." Van Helsing whispered harshly. Carl rolled his eyes, unseen, and felt comfortable enough to remove one arm from around Van Helsing's waist and pluck at his clothing.  
"God forgive me for wearing such opulent garb." He said, crossing himself.  
"You already curse and rut. Why not at least dress well?" Van Helsing said in a low, sardonic voice.  
"I'd prefer it if you called it the usage of an extended vocabulary and making love." The Friar squeaked indignantly.  
"Well according to your rules you're going to have fun explaining the difference to Satan." Van Helsing continued in the same tone. Carl could be such a hypocrite sometimes: a holy man and a scientist.  
"Do you really think I'm going to go to Hell?" He asked in a small, miserable voice.'  
"I think we're already in it." Van Helsing whispered bitterly. At that time they broke free of the woods, and there lay a magnificent castle of stone. Windows, polished to perfection and some of stained glass, glimmered with evening light. That same light glowed over the stone statues of gargoyles and dragons that adorned the turrets and walls. A fountain, surrounded by a garden, stood guard in front of the massive doors that led inside. A huge stable was adjoined. "Whose castle is this?" He called out to Dracula.  
"Last I checked, it was yours." Smiled the other sarcastically. After a moment of awed silence, Carl licked his lips and spoke.  
"If this is Hell, I'm going to continue to be a very naughty friar." Carl said in a reverent voice. There were a few more moments of silence, then Dracula spoke again.  
"Come, let us put our horses in the stables. Our friends and our dinners are waiting inside." He said, goading his horse into a trot. Van Helsing could do nothing but follow. In his time of fighting evil, he had almost always known what he was fighting and how to defeat it. Now, walking up to the castle that was supposed to be his and supposedly had friends inside, he felt more in the dark than he had ever been before.

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A/n- I'm so sorry for the long chapters! I didn't expect that one to come out so long! Anyway, I know I'm probably going to have a glaring number of historical inaccuracies in these upcoming chapters, but please don't yell at me for them! Anyways, continue to review! 


	5. Chapter 4: Shocking Misunderstandings

A/N Wow, what a great way to come home from my trip! Thanks for all the great reviews!! I can't respond to all of them now, so here's a general response: Yes, I had way too much fun writing that last chapter, yes I have a phobia of my stuff being too long since I have been told that I often write too long of chapters, and YES all of us want Anna back!! You'll see how it turns out, be patient!

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Chapter Four:  
Shocking Misunderstandings  
  
It was hard to say who was in a state of more severe shock: Carl or Van Helsing. Dracula led them through the castle, his cheerful banter a constant undercurrent to the thoughts of each. For Van Helsing, his thoughts were mixed and felt like they weren't his own. He felt that he knew this place, had walked this hall, admired that tapestry, and met these servants before, but some part of him kept saying that these things should all be entirely foreign. Carl's thought's were mostly ones of awe and fearful musings on whether he was really going to Hell or not for his recent conduct.  
At last, Dracula led them to a huge wooden door with large iron handles.  
"Finally! We are home!" He lilted merrily. "Prepare a story you two." A devilish grin spread across his face. "Our comrades are more ravenous for gossip than our most nosy servants!"  
With that, he planted his hands on the two doors and swung them open, walking through. As Van Helsing and Carl followed, they felt as though they were walking to their execution. Upon seeing the hall, both decided that it would be a good place to die. The hall was bright and beautiful, with several tables all covered in the remains of a decadent feast. At one end of the squarish room was a high table with eight chairs all on one side of it, at which sat six men doubled over in howling laughter at something.  
"Cease your laughter and see who I have found!" Dracula called out to them.  
"Well, look who has returned!" laughed one, a dark blonde sitting to the far left.  
"Marry, and from the dead it seems by his coloring!" joined in one two seats down. His hair was brown and shaggily cut.  
"Who's the other, though?" asked a quiet sandy-haired one in the middle of the other two.  
"Oh, don't ask him that, he'll give no straight answer." Dracula said wickedly, leaning on the table and eyeing Carl and Gabriel as they circled around the table to sit down. Numbly, Van Helsing sat down at the largest chair, roughly in the center, and Carl flopped into the one at his right.  
"You ate my food." Van Helsing whispered dismally, looking at his empty plate.  
"Oh, sorry, you were taking so long and you should know Daniel has a horrendous appetite!" another seated next to Carl look pointedly at the black-haired man on his left.  
"What use has a dead man for food? So we thought him." He asked in return.  
"I saved some food for you, Gabriel." The sandy-haired one said shyly, standing and bringing his plate over to Van Helsing.  
"Honestly James, you're too soft." said the black-haired one derisively.  
"And you are too hard, Daniel." James stuttered, his fist clenching slightly. Van Helsing accepted the plate wordlessly and began to eat.  
"Come now Daniel, James. We all know that James probably belongs in a monastery, but we wouldn't have him anywhere else. Few are as good with the horses as he." Dracula said evenly, coming to stand behind Carl. "This would be my seat, Friar." He said with the faintest traces of ice in his voice and eyes.  
"Ah, well, I shall just..." Carl sighed and stood, leaning against the back of Van Helsing's chair just as he finished eating. Smiling again, Dracula sat.  
"A Friar, are you?" asked the one who had first spoken.  
"Not a very chaste one, I think." Dracula whispered conspiratorially.  
"What makes you think so, Vlad?" asked the one to his right.  
"Only, Michael, the circumstances in which I found these two." Vlad said with another wolfish grin. Carl and Van Helsing groaned almost simultaneously; the latter drowned out the sound of the tale being retold in a goblet of wine also offered to him by James.  
"Is it TRUE?" asked the man on the far right as he fought tears of laughter.  
"It is the furthest thing from it, David." Van Helsing snapped, the man's name coming to his lips unbidden.  
"Well, we always did have out doubts about you. You think too much, and you haven't even given a girl a good looking over since Mary. And she was two years ago!" chortled the brunette on his righ.  
"Peace, be kind William! Doubts we have had, but remember he did take a nasty knock on the head after we got him drunk when Mary left, and he probably took a good one today too." laughed David.  
"Nevertheless, the truth still stands." William's eyes twinkled with a smile. "We need to find you a beautiful woman." Daniel said. Van Helsing lifted his eyes to the sound of a door opening; instants later, his stomach lurched and his heart stopped. A woman was indeed standing in the doorway.  
It was Anna.

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A/N Well now, that one was a bit short, but the ending was too perfect for me to continue! I already have the next chapter written! Reviews will motivate me to type it up and post it!! 


	6. Chapter 5: Sweet Sin and Bitter Memory

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot and all of Vlad and Gabriel's friends, as well as our new female character.  
  
A/N Okay, more plot development in this chapter. I'm currently working on the next chapter.... and five is the cursed number since I lost grip on my other major fic, These Bloody Nights Spent, on chapter five, so reviews will help me break the curse!! Oh, and I must say that the reviews I got for my previous chapter highly amused me.... and I also suppose I should apologize for the very mean joke I just played on all of you.....

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Chapter Five:  
  
Sweet Sin and Bitter Memory  
  
The world, for once, held still for Gabriel Van Helsing. She was there. Every detail was as he remembered. Anna. _**Anna!**_ His soul screamed. It had been forced to cross time itself to find it's other half, but somehow its screams weren't being heard. But there she was. _Anna..._  
For Dracula too the world had stopped. He had forgotten... Soon his customary smirk was back on his face.  
"Analiese. To what do we owe the honor of this visit?" He asked smoothly.  
"To my wishing to come, cousin Vlad." She replied evenly, gliding closer.  
_Analiese?_ _No,_ _that's not you name... God, she even has the same voice..._ His thoughts trailed off. The world may have started again, but his heart and mind were struggling fruitlessly to catch up.  
"Here, I shall move so that you may sit." Michael, sitting to Dracula's left, said as he stood.  
"Thank you, but no. I'd like to sit elsewhere." Analiese said politely. Michael sat down, noting by the sudden flash of his eyes that Dracula was stung. "Would you mind if I sat here?" She asked in a kind voice.  
"Not at all." William replied, standing and drawing out his chair. With an appreciative smile, she sat down. (A/n For those who got confused in the last chapter, the names are in left to right order. Carl is standing in the back. Dracula and Van Helsing are sitting next to each other in the middle.)  
"Hello John, James, William, Vlad, Michael, Daniel, David." She said, resting her gaze on each in turn. At last, her eyes fell on Van Helsing, who was seated next. "Hello Gabriel."  
"Anna..." He whispered desperately, his eyes full of longing.  
"I've told you not to call me that. My name is Analiese, and I don't much like being called Anna." The warmth in her voice lessened somewhat.  
"How long has it been since we've seen each other? It feel like lifetimes." He replied with a weak smile.  
"It has not been that long, surely." Analiese said thoughtfully. "My mind puts it at nigh two years."  
"Certainly feels to be so much longer, dearest cousin. Every day not spent with you becomes the same, and so all days blend into something unrecognizable. Not to mention uninteresting." Dracula replied sleekly, leaning across Van Helsing to better see Analiese.  
"Speaking of which, what shall we do tomorrow?" Daniel asked languidly.  
"Same as today, I suppose: mock battles, races, and perhaps a hunt. There are many animals about, and we have the two best hunters with us: Vlad and Gabriel." John replied in a similar way. "Between the two of you, there's not a hart in the world that is safe."  
"Yes. We can catch any hart." Dracula smiled softly, his gaze once more straying to Analiese. Either she genuinely didn't notice his fawning, or she was a master of making it look like she did.  
"But what shall Analiese do? We have no women to keep you company. Mayhap we can set up a canopy and you can do your stitching or weaving as we practice." James offered in a quiet voice.  
"I had intended to watch or even participate on my own. I have no fear of the sun." Analiese said stiffly.  
"Ah, these gypsy women. You must give them free reign." William laughed from his place beside Carl.  
"A gypsy? What is you last name?" Carl asked unexpectedly, intrigued.  
"Valerious." She said slowly. "What is your name, stranger?"  
"Carl." replied the Friar. "I arrived recently with Gabriel."  
"Oh." She nodded. Van Helsing seemed to have frozen. _Analiese Valerious. One of Anna's ancestors... Anna.... _"Perhaps we should go to bed now. Gabriel looks ready to die, and we'll need him alive tomorrow." She smiled at him, a gesture probably to comfort him.  
She could never know how much it hurt him.  
"Yes. I trust you'll know the way to your room?" Dracula joked as he stood.  
"Could you lead me there anyway, Vlad?" Van Helsing asked tiredly.  
"Of course. Daniel, show Carl a spare room." Dracula said. "Good night, Analiese." He said with a sweeping bow.  
"Good night." She said a little coldly as she swept past.  
Everyone said a brief good night, then dispersed. Dracula and Van Helsing walked in silence through a couple of corridors and up several flights of stairs, ending at the door to one of the tower rooms. They stopped before the door.  
"Analiese... she's changed in these two years. Or maybe I'm looking at her with new eyes. She's not the same woman we played with as children." Dracula paused, seeing the distant look on Van Helsing's face. "Ah, you've noticed it too."  
"Has it only been two years? Feels so much longer..." said the other distractedly. Dracula's face took on a look of concern, and he put a hand on Van Helsing's shoulder.  
"Truly Gabriel, I hope you're well in the morning. You've been strange today." He said. "Good night my friend." He continued with a warm grin, then he walked back down the stairs. With a tortured sigh, Van Helsing went into his room.

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Down one floor in the tower, Vladislaus Dracula paced his room in a state of agitation.  
He had forgotten. He had become too comfortable as he relived the happiest time of his long life, when he and Gabriel Van Helsing were the best of friends. He had forgotten about HER. Her. The original sin. He couldn't fall prey to her cruel charms again. If he did, everything would fall into its old rut, and he'd lose again. But what agitated him the most was that he felt like everything was out of his control. He was saying things he had said before, standing on the verge of making identical mistakes. And now Van Helsing was there too, and likely in a similar predicament. But this wasn't the 'old' Van Helsing, he knew what he was about. He and that Friar were out to kill him, and since he was no longer up against the same Gabriel that had killed him before, he had lost his edge. The playing field was level once more.  
Sin. He had committed many in his long life, but she was his greatest sin. Because he loved his cousin and would've killed his best friend to have her, he was damned. The taste of bitterness rose in the back of his throat, but quieted as the memory of the actual sin came back. He realized that now, still in the mindset of a soulless vampire, it wasn't at all a bad one. He would be cautious this time, but he would live through this more or less as it had happened originally.  
Some sins are too sweet to not be lived again.

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Van Helsing sat on his bed, trembling. He had managed to forget Anna, after a while. He had shoved her broken memory deep inside himself to a place where its sharp edges could cut him no longer. He had flung himself into his battles, and found solace in them. It no longer hurt him to be called murdered because it was no longer untrue; in that respect, her death at his hands had lifted a huge burden off of him. He had even begun to move on a little, laugh at Carl's jokes again, feel less anguish as he slept at night.  
That existence, hollow as it could be, had possessed an odd form of comfort. Now it had been brutally snatched away from him. When he had first seen Analiese, all those bitter memories had risen from the grave and washed over him like blood flowing from a mortal wound. He remembered the way she walked. The way her silken voice lilted as she spoke. How she smiled. The way her muscled body swayed as she walked. Her determination and devotion. How warm her body felt as he swept her out of Dracula's arms on the dance floor. The noises she made in her throat when they kissed.  
He remembered... how cold she felt when she was dead. The limpness of her beautiful body as he cradled her. The tears on her face as she ascended into heaven. She was happy, he knew it. He didn't want to wrench her out of there, but he was tired of having his heart wrenched out of his chest.  
He thought that maybe this Analiese could heal his wounds At the same time, a terrible fear of the consequences loving her might have ran through him. And there was a sense... that he had to love her. And, no matter the consequences, maybe it could bring him closer to Anna. Maybe he could feel like he had her again. Like he wasn't just loving a fading memory anymore.  
Some memories can never be forgotten. Some fates can never be changed.

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A/N Okay, I hope these past two chapters have made sense! What can I say? eight hours on a bus twice in thirty six hours and two nigh sleepless nights.... as well as an incident at a theme park that landed me with a stuffed purple dog now named Carl. You guys do the math, and review when you are done! 


	7. Chapter 6: Two Heads Aren't Better Than ...

A/N While working on this in science, which is fifth period, I realized something very interesting: almost all of my original characters, including Analiese, are named after people in my fifth period class. It kinda makes sense too, since we're all pretty crazy in that class, and all my OC's are kinda crazy. The fact that the beginning of this was written in fifth period also explains the OOC weirdness of the chapter...  
  
Once more, big hugs and kisses to all reviewers!!! I'm working nonstop on this because of all of you!

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Chapter Six:  
Two Heads Aren't Better Than One  
  
There was an inexplicable change in Van Helsing, Carl decided immediately. He was smiling, laughing and joking as Carl had never seen him do before. He was even on the verge of starting a food fight with Dracula! And when Vlad would not participate, he turned to Carl and seized a strip of ham.  
"En guarde, Carl! Put up your bacon and fight me or risk forfeiting your toast! And maybe your sausage too, those were good!" He cried, holding his slice of ham like a sword.  
"And you insist that he is just a friend, Gabriel, when you would so wantonly speak of sausages before him!" David cackled, bent double over his breakfast with laughter.  
"Do _you_ challenge me, good sir David?" Van Helsing cried, leaping to stand beside David. "Put up your bacon and face the consequences of my wrathful ham!"  
"I dare not challenge you, Gabriel." David said, aghast.  
"But I shall!" Crowed Dracula from behind. He seized a piece of bacon from his plate and 'stabbed' Van Helsing. The slayer gave a mock shout of agony and fell to his knees.  
"You treacherous knave... to attack from behind..." He gasped, his hand over his heart.  
"Hush with all your foolery! Analiese comes!" James chided gently.  
"Send her to my side..." Van Helsing sighed, flopping melodramatically onto his back. True to James's statement, Analiese then entered.  
"Quickly my lady! Gabriel lies dying from the mortal stab which Vlad has dealt him!" cried William. "You must go to his side!" Wearing a bemused grin, Analiese circled behind the table and knelt at Gabriel's side.  
"What destruction has my cousin wreaked upon my friend?" she asked in playful horror.  
"My lady... Analiese..." He feigned a struggle to breathe, when really he was fighting the urge to call her Anna. "I tried to stand against those who would threaten our breakfast... in your honor, and for mine... but my ham was no match for Vlad's bacon. I bid you, take this slice of ham and my seat at the table... in remembrance of my noble attempt.... Farewell..." With that, Van Helsing lay still.  
A mood of utter solemnity stole over the gathering as Analiese, Van Helsing's ill-fated slice of ham in hand, stood and took the deceased man's place at the table. They all joined in a moment of silence. After this, as was appropriate, followed utter hysteria.  
"Quick, Friar Carl! Perhaps you can save the valiant Gabriel!" Michael howled in laughter.  
"What are you implying by that?" Carl asked, appalled. He quickly knelt at Van Helsing's side. "You aren't really hurt, are you?" He asked nervously.  
"Of course not Carl! It was merely a playful poke!" Van Helsing said cheerily, leaping to his feat and clapping his hand heartily on Dracula's shoulder. "Vlad meant me no harm."  
"How do you know I meant none?" asked Dracula lightly, a faint smile on his lips as he teased his food with a knife.  
"How could you ever mean me harm?" asked Van Helsing innocently, his eyes glowing with an unspoken challenge and a reckless smile.  
"Of course. I could never mean you harm. I love you too dearly." Dracula said with something that may have been true fondness.  
"And I you." Van Helsing said silkily.  
"I'll move if you wish to sit." Analiese said, half standing.  
"No, I'd rather you sit there. I'm through with this wild affair masquerading as breakfast." Van Helsing grinned.  
"Thank you Gabriel." Analiese smiled with genuine warmth. "I shall enjoy the breakfast you so bravely defended."  
"Of course, any of us would do the same for you Analiese. You are always welcome here." Dracula's voice was sultry as he took his cousin's hand.  
"Thank you too, Vlad." As she withdrew her hand from his to eat the remnants of Van Helsing's breakfast, her voice was perhaps a degree less warm. As small as the difference was, Dracula noticed it with a pang of pain and jealously.   
The rest of breakfast was still a jovial affair, but no longer as insane as it had been. When everyone had eaten their fill, they dispersed to their rooms again to gather what they would need for the day. Dracula and Van Helsing were the first down, followed by Analiese and Carl. They talked amiably amongst themselves as the rest trickled in, and when everyone was present, they headed out to the stables.  
Carl lagged behind, feeling thoroughly despondent. He had always considered himself Van Helsing's closest friend, and the taciturn man did seem to open up around him more than around others, but now he seemed almost forgotten. And for who? His mortal enemy, Count Vladislaus Dracula. Not only that, he was now constantly being teased about his friendship with the man! He hadn't even been subjected to these feelings for an entire day yet, and he was already sick of them. It was, he realized, probably because he was not _supposed_ to be there. This wasn't his time; linearly, he was completely out of place. That was probably why he felt ruffled, confused and lost. Although he didn't remember any of these times, Van Helsing had lived them before, and so they felt natural. But Carl felt like a saltwater fish suddenly thrown into freshwater.  
As they prepared to leave the stables, the sulking Friar noticed that James was lagging behind the others too. He was a quiet man, and a gentle one. He seemed to often play the moderator between the rowdy groups of men. It wouldn't be bad to fall in with him, Carl decided, and learn a few things. So, he rode up beside James and began to talk.  
"So, have you known all of them long?" He asked. James started slightly, then smiled shyly.  
"Just around a year now." He replied quietly. "Have you known Gabriel long?"  
"I've known him for a few years now, and yet I feel so... on the outside while I'm watching him here." Carl sighed.  
"I felt the same when I first joined. I was only my way to a monastery to become a monk when I was held up in a tavern by some drunk ruffians. Gabriel came to my rescue, and began to talk to me. He was so kind, so I told him much about myself, how I was going to a monastery because I was suited to nothing else and I had no friends since I'm so shy. Then he convinced me to come back with him to meet all his friends." James smiled a little weakly. "I felt so small and pious, almost like a school_girl_ compared to them when we first met. They poked fun at me, even as they poke fun of you. But gradually, they accepted me as one of their own, albeit the black sheep."  
"They appear to be an interesting bunch." Carl commented dryly, watching them up ahead, yelling to one another as they weaved their horses delicately around each other. Analiese was a short distance ahead of them in breeches and an elegantly embroidered top, laughing.  
"Aye, that they are." James laughed softly.  
"They all seem to have their own place and know it well." Carl remarked nonchalantly. Group dynamics could be important to Van Helsing's success or failure; he needed to know who his allies and who his enemies were.  
"That they know too. They all live here as carefree bachelors, but they have a very sensible hierarchy. Gabriel and Vlad have known each other since childhood, and lead their antics. The others have joined up with them along the way, and some have been there longer than others." James's face took on a thoughtful cast. "It's funny how evenly they are split; they even sit at the table according to their 'status,' if you will."  
"I didn't take especial note of where they sit. How does it affect them?" Carl inquired, his eyes flickering to James to make sure that he didn't notice he was almost being interrogated. The other man gave no sign of such knowledge.  
"It takes no special knowledge of them, it's fairly simple. John, William and I, sit on Gabriel's side. Gabriel is the one we first befriended, and the one we are most loyal to. William is Gabriel's cousin, and he has known John for around six years. Vlad and his friends have always poked fun at me for being so shy, since they are the most rambunctious, so I tend to stay with Gabriel.  
"Michael, Daniel, and David sit on Vlad's side. They have known Vlad the longest, especially Daniel. Vlad has known Daniel almost as long as he has known Gabriel." James voice lowered slightly. "I'm not sure if it's because he's jealous or not, but Gabriel has never liked Daniel that much. Daniel is almost cruel, sometimes. He gets into the worst drunken rages. I don't know the exact reasons for it, but I can't exactly blame Gabriel for his feelings."  
"Where does Analiese fit in?" Carl asked suddenly. James shuddered and sighed.  
"This is not where I imagined myself to be, ever. But... I'm happy here. It's a sort of utopia: cut off from all the world, almost no rules, many friends, days and nights full of glorious fun... Analiese, I fear, is the one thing that could destroy our happy existence." James looked away, up at the curly-haired woman up ahead.  
"Why do you say that?" Carl asked quickly, his heart doing a queer flip. James took a breath and was about to say something when John pulled up suddenly behind them.  
"What are you two conspirators doing back here? Come and join us, we're almost to the clearing where we shall hold our games!" He called, sending his horse into a trot again. Carl cursed inwardly, watching James ride off and struggling to catch up. Now he had an even worse feeling; he was fearing for Van Helsing too.  
He had no time to speak to Gabriel, however, as he and the others were promptly at their games. Just as all were going about the quiet pretense of setting up a sort of camp and stretching out their muscles for games of skill as well as donning leather armor, Vlad drew his sword and shouted wildly, playfully attacking the nearest person. After that, all Hell broke loose and the Friar found himself in the thick of it.  
He immediately decided that this 'game' was as close to actual melee combat as he would ever care to get. It was chaotic, and every participant had a 'anything-goes' mindset. Since Carl had had no intention of actually joining in (a decision which he found rather sad himself, since even Analiese intended to participate) he had brought no weapons. When his first attacker, David, was upon him. All he could do was draw back his fist and hammer it at the man's face as hard and fast as he could, praying he hit.  
He also immediately decided that God _did_ in fact exist, since his prayers were answered and the larger man was sent flying to the ground. Carl struggled valiantly to wrest the sword from the man's hands, and from the distance, it looked oddly like two children fighting over a prize toy. Just when Carl was about to lose his grip on the sword (which had a dulled blade) there was a white flash in front of his eyes. His first thoughts were of death, but he quickly saw that it had been Analiese, whose tunic was white. She had leapt in front of him and kicked the blade, sending it flying. She then ran to retrieve it, bringing it back to Carl.  
"Quickly, let you and I became allies. Between a woman and a holy man, they'll never suspect us to win!" She shouted above the disorder. Carl nodded eagerly, and they set off in separate directions, on an unspoken mission to disarm Dracula.  
Analiese got there first, and instead of fighting her, Dracula shouted to her.  
"Join my side, Analiese! Let us go up against Gabriel!" He called.  
"Very well!" She replied. They began to advance on Van Helsing, who was grappling with John. When he cast this opponent aside and saw them, he smiled grimly and raised his sword (also dulled, as were all the blades.) Just as Dracula was closing in and preparing to lunge, he fell forward onto his face as the flat of a blade struck him in the back. Stunned, he rolled over to look into Analiese's eyes.  
"But... you were on my side." He called to her in disbelief.  
"And you stabbed Gabriel in the back with a piece of bacon this morning without warning." She grinned fiendishly, twirling her sword with surprising grace in her fingers. "Someone had to avenge him." Van Helsing crowed in triumph and he and Analiese rushed off to find Carl, leaving a thoroughly miffed Vlad behind.  
The mock combat lasted for at least half an hour, at which time all the contestants flopped onto the ground, panting from the exertion. Carl had held his own fairly well. Granted, his clothes still on loan from James were more dirty than anyone else's because he had been knocked down more, but he had managed to sneakily take down a few of his opponents too. He found that what James had said was true; David, Daniel, and Michael rallied more to Dracula, while William, James and John always defended Van Helsing. He also began to see the problem with Analiese. Dracula fawned on her, it was obvious, and Van Helsing showed great affection as well, but she leaned more towards Van Helsing, and he could see it tearing at Dracula. It would be an easy way for conflict to erupt among the factions.  
But it would be hard to stop Gabriel from falling for Analiese. If the theory now forming in the Friar's mind was correct, not only had he fallen in love with her before, he was now carrying the weight of Anna's memory. In every way but name, Analiese was Anna. This multiplied her attractiveness for Van Helsing; he could feel like he was getting back something he thought he had lost forever. Carl shuddered as he sat down. This could get messy, but only he could see the potential disaster, because only he was so far removed from it. He began to pray that, if he got a chance to tell him of it, Van Helsing would listen.  
The games lasted all day: there were foot races, horseback races, archery contests, and a fruitful hunt as had been promised. Carl either stayed quiet the whole while, or hovered around James or Analiese. Van Helsing seemed to be, by negligence, ignoring him.  
When the sun was near its time for setting, they cleaned up their mess and began the journey home for dinner. Dinner was much the same as breakfast: a happy event, with songs and tales and conversation. Extra chairs had been added; Carl now sat next to Van Helsing and Analiese in-between Vlad and Gabriel. Carl had winced at the arrangement. It was begging for disaster as both men vied for her attention. At last, as the evening was winding down, Analiese stood.  
"Well, I think I shall be going to sleep now." She said.  
"I'll escort you-" Dracula and Van Helsing said in unison, standing simultaneously. They froze midsentence.  
"It's alright if you go, Vlad." Van Helsing said sheepishly.  
"No, you may." Dracula's reply was cold.  
"Really, Vlad-" Van Helsing began.  
"No, I insist. She's related to me. She needs no additional burden of my presence than that of the common blood we share." Dracula's voice was pure ice as he sat back down. For a moment, it seemed that Van Helsing might say something to his friend, but in the end, he simply offered his arm cordially to Analiese and led her out of the room.  
They walked with their arms entwined down the halls, sharing a comfortable silence. Now Van Helsing was beginning to remember the halls of the castle, and the room that Analiese had enjoyed staying in. It was spacious and overlooked the pastures where the horses were kept. She liked to watch them run. She was a gypsy, and loved the feeling of being free.  
As they arrived at the door to the said room, Analiese turned to Gabriel.  
"I hope I have caused no trouble between you and Vlad." She said earnestly, in her thick and sensuous accent.  
"It is nothing that will not go away with time." Van Helsing said reassuringly.  
"For... as long as I can remember, you two have fought over me. Since we were little children in the same nursery." Analiese said quietly. "You are both good men, and I like you both well. But Vlad is... too passionate, too open for me. He makes his suit too well known, and doesn't give me the joy of the chase. Besides, he is my cousin. I have heard tales of people marrying closer relations than that, even brother and sister having a child, but the idea of marrying one of my kin..." She shifted uncomfortably. "I do not like it. I love Vlad well as a cousin, but feel no more for him.  
"And what do you think of me, Analiese?" Van Helsing asked breathlessly. She paused at the door. She had changed into a crimson gown and swept the top half of her lustrous hair into a gold clip; how elegant she looked now, the long angel sleeves falling down to her calves, the folds of the dress swirling all around her, the torchlight casting guttering shadows over her face. She was Transylvanian mystique itself. _And so akin to Anna..._  
"Ask me that tomorrow." She said with a coy smile, opening the door to her room and, never taking her eyes off of him, walking inside.  
A swell of warmth built in Gabriel as he turned away and began to walk back towards the hall where the others were to bid them good night and go to bed. He was overly eager to do the last part; for the first time in as long as he could remember, good dreams were awaiting him there.

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A/n Well, there's my longest and most romantic chapter to date! fights off phobia hope yall liked it, and review to make me write more! 


	8. Chapter 7: Don't Let Me Down

A/N Jeez, I have never been more inspired to write than working on this story. This is perhaps my favorite chapter to date, as well as the most romantic... except for the one that comes a couple after this that I have already written... Anyways, read and review!

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Chapter Seven:  
Don't Let Me Down  
  
The bright sunshine spilled into Van Helsing's room. He was sitting on his bed, having just opened the curtains, contentedly watching the liquid gold coating his belongings. He couldn't remember the last time he had just sat there and enjoyed the sunrise, and for the first time ever, he realized that he had something to look forward to.  
He had fallen in love with Anna in a time of strife and chaos. He hadn't had that delicious time to fall asleep thinking about her and wake up with her still on his mind. He hadn't been able to look at her and have that special, warm feeling fill up his being, he had only been able to look at her to make sure she was still alive, then look back at his foe. And now, with Analiese, it was like having Anna back... except there were no evils to be vanquished. He could fall in love with her at leisure, savor every moment, and have fun while doing so. This wasn't just a mission, this was a gift from God in thanks of his hard work!  
Part of him, that doubting, bitter part that could never fully be exorcized, wondered if it was right of him to love her as he did. To love her as Anna. In so many ways, she was so much like her descendant, but she was a different person with a different soul. Was it wrong to love someone as a different person?  
But then, he discovered, how could something that felt so right be wrong? As he smiled and began to stretch, there was a knock at the door.  
"Come in." Van Helsing called, turning to face his visitor. It was Carl. "Good morning Carl!" He beamed.  
"I hate to spoil your good mood, I really do, but I found some things out from James yesterday that I think you should know." Carl said with uncharacteristic graveness.  
"You and I seem to have switched places. Usually I am the somber one and you're the happy one. Lighten up! What can go wrong?" Van Helsing replied blithely.  
"Lots can go wrong, I discovered. I think I know what happened last time... why you killed Dracula. You-" Carl was cut off by his friend.  
"Look, Carl, if it's the mission that's got you worried, I think you should stop worrying. I killed him last time and escaped with my life, right? All I have to do is just live this through just the way it happened last time and he died. I'm not worrying about that because.. I'm happy. I'm finding out about myself. And I feel whole for the first time in so long because when I'm around Analiese... it's like I have Anna again." He fell quiet, looking away.  
"But, Van Helsing, she's-" Carl began urgently, but Van Helsing cut him off once more.  
"Please, Carl. Don't." He said a note of desperation entering his voice. "Don't break me again."  
"Will you listen to what I have to say about your friends?" asked the Friar tiredly. Van Helsing would not meet his eyes and gave no answer, so he simply sighed. "At least listen to this. You should be worried. Things aren't the same as last time. Dracula isn't your friend, he's not going to wait for the things that first set you at each other's throats to arise again, he's really out to kill you this time around. Please be careful, Gabriel. I'm afraid you've grown blind and will get hurt. Don't fail me." As he turned to walk out the door, he pushed roughly past Dracula, who gave him a quizzical stare before entering. Van Helsing, his head resting against one hand and his back to the door, said nothing.  
"Lover's quarrel?" Dracula asked jokingly.  
"He's my best friend, Vlad. Nothing more." Van Helsing said hoarsely, not taking his eyes off the window.  
"You know I believe you. Sometimes the opportunity is just too golden to not try and goad a smile out of you." Dracula smiled.  
"Why have you come?" asked Gabriel quietly.  
"I never thought I needed a reason." He said, a little muddled, hurt even. "But I had hoped we could take a ride this morning... just the two of us."  
"Certainly." said the other in a monotone. "I'll meet you in the stables in a few minutes."  
When Van Helsing did meet Dracula in the stables a few minutes later, he was much more cheerful. Despite their good moods and the gloriousness of the spring morning, they rode in silence until they reached a huge field all covered in red flowers. It was a picturesque scene: the waving grass, the scattered trees, the Carpathian Mountains in the distance and the majestic castle at their backs. As they entered the fields they slowed, and turned their horses to face one another. Similar emotions were on their faces, ones of pain and confusion. Why do we face each other as enemies now? Where did we go wrong? Breaking taut moment, Van Helsing bent and picked one of the flowers at the tips of the grass, twisting it thoughtfully through his fingers.  
"These are Analiese's favorites." He said impulsively, picking a few more.  
"It'll make her furious if you give them to her, though." Dracula replied quickly, circling his horse around to the front of his friends. "You know how she hates being seen as feminine. I found out she liked them and brought her a bouquet once... She would scarcely speak to me for days after. Here-" He shook them out of Van Helsing's hands like so many drops of blood. "Let us leave them here where they will be better appreciated. And Gabriel...." He looked away, back at the castle, with longing in his eyes. "Let's neither of us pursue Analiese. We are happy as we are, we don't need a woman."  
"I understand." Van Helsing said distantly, looking around with a listless expression.  
"Gabriel, swear to me." Dracula said, moving closer to Van Helsing and laying his hand on his shoulder. "Don't let me down on this." He said fearfully. With that, he turned his horse away and began to ride back.  
"Vlad!" called the other. "Don't you want to ride on some more?"  
"It'll be time for breakfast soon. I'm getting hungry." Dracula shouted back, not slowing. Van Helsing sighed and bent again, picking another bunch of flowers and tucking them inside his vest where Vlad would not see them, then he smiled and clicked to his horse.

* * *

The flowers still in hand, Van Helsing went up to Analiese's door. It was just after breakfast, a more sober affair than usual, and she had gone to her room to get ready for the day. After a steadying breath, he knocked. Analiese opened promptly, just pulling her black tunic down over her head. She leaned against the doorframe, smiling.  
"I hope I am not interrupting you." Van Helsing said calmly, his hands behind his back.  
"A few moments earlier and you would've been. Are you so eager to- Oh!" She caught her breath and gave a cry of delight as a smiling Van Helsing handed her the small bunch of red flowers. "Gabriel! You must've had to get up so early to get me these!" She said as she accepted them, girlish glee alight in her eyes.  
"What makes you think I went through that trouble just for you?" He asked mysteriously. The girlish glee faded and her face took on a different, almost seductive cast.  
"What would you have me think?" She asked in a low voice, twirling the flowers.  
"I would have you think of taking a walk with me." Van Helsing said with a mock gallant air, offering his arm to her.  
"I would think yes." Analiese smiled, taking his arm.  
As they walked down the hall, Vladislaus Dracula slumped against the wall. The bunch of flowers he had rushed out to pick for her after breakfast slipped out of his hand as he watched the two walk away.

* * *

Arm in arm, they walked around the castle, joking as they went. After a while, Van Helsing grew quiet and solemn. Once they passed behind the castle, where the grass grew taller, Analiese pulled him out of the castle's shadow.  
"You seem lost in thought. What are you thinking of?" She asked, her head tipped to one side.  
"I'm thinking of how many promises I must keep. It seems I hae an oath to everyone today... to Carl, to Vlad. Why, I even have a promise to keep to you, Analiese." He said lightly.  
"What owe you to me?" She asked bewilderedly.  
"Yesterday I asked you what you thought of me and you told me 'ask me that tomorrow.'" He had been circling around her and now he stopped before her, tipping her head up. "What do you think of me?" He asked solemnly. With a sly grin, Analiese stepped away and began to circle him, watching him out of the corner of her eye.  
"You're... tall." She said in a measured voice, now observing him as one might appraise a horse. "...dark in more ways than one." With a laugh, he turned quickly to face her as she passed behind him, causing her to squeal and jump. "But for all your dark, you're playful too!" Now she stopped moving and stood before him. A warm breeze lifted her rich hair, the sunlight sparkled in her eyes, and the grasses waved sensually around her hips. "You defend those who need defending. You have a strong sense of honor, of duty. You're loyal and independent..." Her voice trailed off, and she remained there, watching him. "And thought I've known you all my life, I feel like I could never know you well enough."  
An unreadable look on his face, Van Helsing stepped closer to her and brushed some of her hair out of her face, resting his hand lightly on her cheek. Unconsciously, she leaned into his touch and closed her eyes. She spent so much time being cold and coy, playing games and avoiding real love. But this warmth... _Oh_, this could get addictive...  
Just as suddenly and inexplicably as he had touched her, Van Helsing withdrew and began to walk away. Analiese called out.  
"I told you what I thought of you. What do you think of me?"  
Van Helsing turned slowly, regarding her. The wind was still teasing her hair and her black blouse; she held the flowers close to her chest. _The fire in the black of night..._ He thought.  
"Ask me that tomorrow." He said with a debonair grin before walking away.  
Alone, Analiese lay down smiling in the grass, the flowers to her nose. She was a gypsy and a huntress, she lived for the thrill of the chase. But she knew that Gabriel Van Helsing would be a tricky quarry. Of all the men she'd met, she had always known that his was the only mystery that could match hers.  
Her smile widened. He would not disappoint her in this hunt. She was ready for his challenge.

* * *

A/N Wow, that seemed so much longer when I wrote it down in my notebook... anyway, we are nearing the climax of this plot! Next chapter starts it! Also, I have planned out all the chapters for this story... And note that above I say THIS plot, since there is another after this. It looks like this story will be somewhere around 21 chapters, counting the prologue. Review pwease!


	9. Chapter 8: It's All Fun and Games

A/N All I can say is... yall are probably gonna end up hating Analiese after this chapter.  
  
**Samara Morgan-ring**: Your review.. um... inspired me to keep writing (and I'll get reading your fic as soon as possible!)  
**Irish QT**: Wow, I haven't heard from you in a while! Technically, Analiese isn't evil... but after this chapter you probably will think she is! And I can't believe what they did to poor Van Helsing in the movie! Keep him for the day, he needs all the snuggles he can get!

Oh, and this chapter is dedicated to **HyperCaz**, my most loyal reviewer! Your review for the previous chapter had me in stitches! And don't worry, you'll go back to hating Vlad after this chapter!

* * *

Chapter 8:  
It's All Fun and Games...  
  
Even Carl, who had been brooding and sulking for the past few days, was in a cheery mood the next morning. As usual, Analiese sat in-between Vlad and Gabriel, but she and Van Helsing didn't seem particularly interested in conversation. They almost seemed to be ignoring each other, until at last Van Helsing, who had been talking weapons with William and Carl, spoke to Analiese.  
"So, why did your brother and sister not join us?" He asked nonchalantly.  
"Because only they had the good sense not to come." She said icily. Van Helsing was taken aback for a moment, until he glanced at her and saw that she was watching his reaction from under her eyelashes.  
_Are we to play games then? _He thought mischievously.  
"The first step to fixing our faults is admitting to them." He replied lightly.  
"What are you implying by that?" Analiese cried angrily, throwing down her knife. Yet, behind her veil of anger, Van Helsing could see she was enjoying this.  
"How could you speak so to Analiese?" Dracula asked, outraged.  
"Thank you Vlad." Analiese said sweetly, giving Dracula a look of adoration. "Perhaps we should take leave of their barbaric company. You and I always have so much fun when it's just the two of us." Dracula blinked slowly, seeming almost confused. Then a slow smile spread across his face.  
"You're right." He beamed. He stood and offered his arm to Analiese. She did not take it; instead, she took his hand.  
"It is much more comfortable this way." She whispered to him. Another smile was goaded from Vlad. This was an unexpected turn.  
"Wait, Vlad!" Gabriel called. Dracula turned.  
"What is it?" He asked.  
"You might want to take your napkin with you to wipe your hand when she at last releases it." He called out, waving the cloth napkin from Dracula's place at the table. With a choked cry of outrage, Analiese fled the room. Dracula glared at Van Helsing for a moment, then chased after her.  
"Gabriel! What drove you to be so insensitive?" Carl hissed in outrage.  
"What are you at?" The others murmured generally at once. To their supreme shock, Van Helsing merely smiled.  
"I am playing along." He said smoothly, turning back to his breakfast.

* * *

Analiese paced the garden outside the castle furiously, a few tears slipping down her cheeks. She wasn't crying because of what Van Helsing had said, she was crying because she actually cared that he might have meant it. She actually CARED made her feel sick with pain.  
"Analiese?" called Dracula gently. She turned to look at him, his face full of loving concern, then looked away. "Are you all right?" He asked in the same tone, standing behind her.  
"Yes. I'm... quite fine." She muttered thickly, drying her tears as fast as she could.  
"No you're not." Dracula said as he turned her. "I wouldn't wash my hands after holding hands with you, no matter what Gabriel says! Rather, I'd want to keep your touch there for as long as possible."  
"Thank you for saying that, Vlad." She said with a soft smile.  
"Why not thank me for meaning it?" He asked quietly, taking both of her hands and giving them a squeeze. Analiese watched him for a minute. Despite Van Helsing's slight, real or imagined, her feelings towards her cousin had not changed. _But,_ she thought, _If Gabriel does care for me, he'll have to come and get me first. That's the only way I'll know for sure that he wants me..._ And, regardless of her thoughts, here was the place he could chase her to. She squeezed Dracula's hands back.  
"I thank you." She whispered, hugging him. He returned the embrace warmly, then drew back.  
"What else can I do to make those tears go away?" He asked with a smile, wiping a few tears still clinging to her cheeks away.  
"A party." She said brightly. "We haven't had some real merrymaking here in ages!"  
"A party it is then!" Dracula laughed. "Let us go back inside and tell everyone." Arm in arm, they reentered the castle and the hall. "Gentlemen, Analiese and I have decided that we are well overdue for a merrymaking on these premises! We shall have a party this night!"  
"A party!" shouted a majority of the friends seated at the table. Even Carl seemed ecstatic, at which Van Helsing raised his eyebrows. His heart had done a small leap when Dracula had first started talking. It sounded like he had been about to say something else about himself and Analiese...  
"I am so sorry that you shall have no one to dance with, Gabriel." Analiese smiled softly. "Perhaps I can find someone in town for you?"  
"I think that would be quite kind of you." Van Helsing smirked. She expected him to be jealous of her and Dracula, and insulted by her implications of paying someone to attend him. He was neither. She was playing games that he would not allow her to win. "But you might want to save your money to pay Vlad to dace with you."  
"I would never need any such thing to dance with my dearest cousin." Dracula insisted, taking Analiese by both her hands. She smiled appreciatively Dracula, casting a 'catch me if you can' grin in Van Helsing's direction. He merely raised his goblet by way of salute and drank. _Let the games begin..._ (A/N A nod to my now deceased fic, These Blood Nights Spent, whose fourth chapter ended thus.)

* * *

After some rowdy carousing in the nearby town, a suitable number of guests, including some female companions for those who did not have them and a traveling group of musicians to provide entertainment, were rounded up and ushered back towards the castle. With hearty cheers they converged on the said place, attacking it with decorations. In all the hullabaloo, Dracula and Analiese were swept apart, but Vlad was continually looking for her and for an opportunity to be near her again. _What am I doing to myself?_ He wondered suddenly. _I know how this all turns out... _But that pang of joy when she smiled at him, almost painful in its bliss, was too hard to resist. This time it was she who sought him out.  
"Will you help me hang these wreathes? I am not tall enough." She said pleasantly.  
"Certainly." He warmly replied, climbing on top of a chair and taking the wreathes she offered him. When he was done and stood back down beside her, he decided to test her feelings for him.  
"Why don't you go help Gabriel with some decorations?" He asked with perfect nonchalance. Analiese looked over her shoulder. Van Helsing was not far away, there was a chance he might hear her if she spoke loud enough...  
"I'd loathe to be in his company when the pleasure of yours is so close." She said clearly.  
Surely enough, Van Helsing heard. But his reaction was not what Analiese might have expected. He turned to the woman beside him, who was holding up long ribbons to drape the walls in, and spoke laughingly with her. Her shriek of delight filled the hall as he wrapped his strong arms around her waist and lifted her up so she could begin decorating, and the other, similar noise she made when he spun her around before putting her down. Despite the fact that she had been studiously under the pretense of not caring what he did that day, she felt jealousy flare in her stomach. He was beating her at her own game!  
If she had been privy to the thoughts of Gabriel Van Helsing, however, she would've known that he was going through similar feelings. What was she doing with Dracula? Just the sight of them was nearly enough to make his blood boil. He was tiring of this game she wanted to play. He hadn't had the chance to tell her what he thought of her... But, he did not want to disappoint her, and so, he kept up their game. Sighing inwardly, he looked up at Carl's cry of distress. He was currently at the top of the ladder with some more decorations.  
"GABRIEL! I WANT TO COME DOWN NOW!" He shrieked almost girlishly.  
"Come on Carl, just get the decorations put up! Please?" Van Helsing groaned. Carl had been absolutely giddy with excitement at the notion of a party, but not so thrilled about the idea of going up a ladder and actually helping with the decorations. Apparently, he didn't like heights.  
"NO! I WANT TO COME DOWN NOW!" He screamed again, clinging to the ladder.  
"Carl..." Gabriel said warningly. "If you dare come down here-"  
"BLOODY HELL VAN HELSING I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"  
"Then don't come down!" Van Helsing shouted back up. This little bit of logic quickly had Carl staying at the top of the ladder... and doing absolutely nothing at all. "Carl this isn't what I meant-"  
"You mean I can come down now and you won't kill me?" Asked the whimpering Friar.  
"NO, I meant that I want you to STAY up there and actually put up decorations!" Van Helsing retorted. "It's not like you're doing anything otherwise!"  
"Dammit, isn't praying important?"  
"Well, with your language, it is going to be very important!"  
"That was very mean of you."  
"Your rules, not mine."  
"It was still mean."  
"JUST PUT THE DAMN DECORATIONS UP!"  
Analiese, sitting with Dracula, David and Daniel at one of the festive tables they had dragged into the hall, couldn't help but giggle at the scene. While sometimes a dark and brooding man, Gabriel could be filled with so much light... In comparison to him, Vlad seemed dark as night although he tended to have a sense of humor. She couldn't accurately describe the difference between the two without calling one evil and the other good... and in her eyes, both were good.  
After much squabbling, Carl had at last begun to timidly hang up some wreathes and drape some ribbons. Van Helsing was still holding the ladder securely below as the Friar began his timid descent.  
"I'm going to fall, I know it." Carl squeaked about halfway down, clinging fiercely to the ladder.  
"Then stop being a smart aleck and pretend you don't know that." Van Helsing quipped.  
"But... I do know it."  
"You really aren't listening to me, are you?"  
"Not especially."  
"You know what, maybe I should just leave you up there." cried the Hunter, exasperated. He let go of the ladder and began to walk away.  
"VAN HELSING!" Came the shriek from behind him. In instants, Van Helsing was where he had been before to catch his friend as he fell. Both tumbled to the ground, Carl landing squarely on top of his friend. Everyone had gasped and frozen at the loud sound that had been made as they crashed.  
"Are you all right?" Van Helsing asked Carl, breathing harshly. The Friar nodded slowly. Tears almost seemed to be forming in his eyes.  
"Please don't make me go up there again." He whispered.  
"I won't." Said his friend reassuringly as they stood.  
Immediately, Dracula and his friends began to make lewd jokes about Van Helsing and Carl. Analiese ignored them, she was lost in her own thoughts about the man. He was such a paradox, so light and so dark. At times he could have such an ego... but he was never afraid to admit when he was wrong. He never belittled a person's faults and fears, since he had so many of his own. And it had been he who had taken most of the damage from the fall, but he had asked Carl if he was okay first before even considering his injuries. That was his way: be the first to take injuries for his friends, and be the last to worry about them afterwards. The more she realized how deeply she felt for him, the more she wondered what the hell she was doing over here with Dracula. But she had to know if he loved her enough to chase her...  
At last all the drama of the decorating was over and all the food was prepared, and it was time for the merrymaking to begin. Some sat and feasted, while others did lively capers to the jaunty tunes the musicians played. Analiese was among those out on the floor. But as Dracula whirled her around and around on the floor, she concentrated less on their conversation and the placement of her feet and more on Gabriel. He had done nothing yet in the way of pursuit! All he did was match her every move blow for blow! When she had allowed Dracula to spoon feed her at dinner, he had simply _handfed_ the woman who was accompanying him. She was a light-haired, flirty person who giggled at his every word. Analiese immediately took to hating her.  
As the night progressed, (for it had taken them all day to get everything prepared) the musicians took to sadder songs that were for the more elegant dances. While Dracula was dancing her through one of these, Analiese found herself once more watching Van Helsing. He was completely oblivious to her, dancing with his little golden-haired angel. She sighed, depressed.  
"What thoughts make you so sad?" Dracula asked, dipping her suddenly. A gasp escaped her mouth as she tried to think of an excuse.  
"The future." She whispered after a bit.  
"Does it depress you that much?" He asked, surprised, as they continued to dance.  
"It's just that it is... so much to think about." Analiese watched as they danced closer and closer to Van Helsing, and began to choose her words carefully.   
"Perhaps it would help if... we could speak of it? Make sense of its tangled knots?" Dracula said, for once timid. Analiese almost could kiss him; he had played directly into her hand.  
"That would be good. But there is so much of it to discuss..." Now she was back to back with Van Helsing. It was the moment of truth, and she rose to the challenge. "The night is yet young. Perhaps... we can discuss it tonight in your room?" Her smile was equal parts coquettish and shy. Now van Helsing would _have_ to do something, if he cared for her at all.  
Behind Analiese, Van Helsing's blood ran cold. _What_ had she just said to Dracula? Something about _his room_? He felt his heart began to beat a little more slowly, as though in defeat. Perhaps this is what Carl had meant. Perhaps she had now fallen in love with Dracula, and he would kill the man in a jealous rage... He didn't let his defeat show on his face, however. He smiled a little more broadly at the woman, Catherine was her name, that he was dancing with. As soon as the song was over, he made his excuses to her and went outside to the garden to cope with his feeling of emptiness. This was like losing Anna all over again only worse, because she wasn't dead, she was right within his grasp but he could not have her!  
The merrymaking had begun to move outside at this time, and not feeling in the mood to join in once more, Van Helsing began to quietly slip off. On Dracula's arm, Analiese noticed this and decided to cease her games and take this into her own two, capable hands.  
"Vlad, will you excuse me for a moment? There is something I would speak of with Gabriel." She made sure to add a slight note of contempt to his name so that Dracula would think she was going to tell him off or taunt him.  
"But of course." He said with a cavalier bow. "I shall see you in my room then?" He asked as she began to walk away. She froze for a moment, remembering what she had said. Then she turned and smiled.  
"Yes. Later." She then continued on her way. Dracula felt suspicion arise in his gut and walked swiftly back into the house, intending to go up one flight of stairs in the tower he stayed in. There was a window there that overlooked the gardens Van Helsing and Analiese had been headed too...  
Analiese approached Van Helsing. His back was turned to her, and he made no sound or move that showed he knew of her presence.  
"Gabriel?" She asked timidly. Van Helsing turned suddenly, a look of surprise on his face. He truly had not known she was there. "There is something I'd like to ask you. A promise I have to keep." Her voice slowed a little as she moved to stand directly in front of him.  
"What promise?" He frowned.  
"What do you think of me?" She asked softly, her heart thudding in her chest with fear and hope. Van Helsing gave no answer... He bent swiftly and kissed her on the lips instead.  
Time stopped entirely for Analiese Valerious as she stepped closer to him, allowing him to wrap an arm around her waist and sliding her hand up through his silken hair to pull him even closer. This is what she had waited all day for- no, all her life for- to know that he loved her.  
Time went to a very specific place for Gabriel Van Helsing. The cold spring breeze that stirred sullenly around them just might have been the one off of the ice in Castle Dracula. He had found himself there again as his lips connected with Analiese's; she sent him spiraling back in time, to Anna's arms, to that first, and last, desperate kiss they had shared on the brink of battle. _Oh, Anna..._ His mind whispered. For all he knew, it could've been her again. Because Analiese gave him the same sensation that Anna had given him; he felt alive once more.

* * *

Dracula reached his destination, the broad window overlooking part of the gardens, just as Van Helsing and Analiese kissed. He had frozen, his hands gripping the windowsill. No, it couldn't be... Analiese, she had been his all day.... Why didn't she pull back from the kiss? Why did she deepen it? Then the terrible answer flashed in his head. She had used him. Used him to slight Gabriel and to see if he truly cared enough for her to go against his best friend... Rage replaced the mounting sorrow.  
"I'll teach you to play games with me, you whores!" He screamed at the window. "It's all fun and games until someone looses their life! And I will have you, Analiese, no matter the costs!"  
The howl of utter anguish that rent the still night air was lost on the ears of Analiese and Gabriel, still locked in their kiss of now deadly passion.

* * *

A/N- Hmm, that ending reminds me of the end of Act 1 of the Phantom of the Opera ('You will curse the day you did not do/All that the Phantom asked of you!') Anyways, I think Dracula and Analiese were both slightly to moderately OOC in that chapter (almost all the characters were, I think), but I needed them to be so for the conflict. I'm actually not very happy with this chapter... but it had to be written. Please review! I already have the next chapter written, but I need your reviews to post it! 


	10. Chapter 9: Why Does My Heart Cry?

A/N Okay, there is some sexual content (i.e. rape) and foul language in this chapter, but not enough that I saw fit to upgrade this to R. If you have sensitivities to stuff like that, then just skip to the end of the chapter where I'll tell you what happened. And yes, the title is a nod to El Tango de Roxanne from Moulin Rouge. The Duke (played by the same guy who played Dracula!) attempted to rape Satine while this song was playing, so I thought it fitting.  
  
**Irish Anor**: You know, it's funny... you were my first ever reviewer on ff.net if I remember right! And what have I done, giving Gabriel to you...? Thanks for your reviews!  
**HyperCaz**: Your reviews keep me going, you deserved the dedication! And you're just happy cuz Dracula is suffering! :-) The actual quote is 'it's all fun and games until someone looses an eye' but it was more fitting for me to put 'until some looses their life.' I'll try to live up to your standards with this chapter!  
**Artemis1860**: It's okay, I'm too lazy to sign in everyday so I just have the computer memorize my password and I only type the first letter of my email address, then pick it off the drop-down box and it signs in for me... ANYWAYS.... I'm glad this has you hooked!  
  
THE SHOW DOES GO ON!

* * *

Chapter 9  
Why Does My Heart Cry?  
  
_His eyes upon your face  
His hand upon you hand  
His lips caress your skin  
It's more than I can stand...  
  
Why does my heart cry?  
Feelings I can't fight!  
You're free to leave me  
But just don't deceive me  
And please, believe me when I say  
I love you...  
_  
**-El Tango de Roxanne, Moulin Rouge**  
  
"Vlad?" Analiese called faintly, watching the door to her cousin's room. She had just taken leave of Van Helsing, whose kiss was still burning on her lips and making her feel faint. She could hardly think straight, but she knew she had to talk to Vlad. She had promised him she would visit him in his room after she talked to Gabriel... She knocked once on his door. "Vlad? I'm coming in." She opened the door slowly. It was pitch black inside, almost unnaturally so. "Vlad?"  
"I'm here." He said in a low, hoarse voice from somewhere in the darkness.  
"Oh good, there's something I wanted to tell you." She said with relief. "Why don't you put on some lights?"  
"Oh, but don't you like the atmosphere of the darkness?" He asked seductively. Somehow, his tone frightened her.  
"No... actually, I don't. I can't see a thing." She said shakily, walking forward a little.  
"Well, I don't like the darkness either." He said lightly. She could not tell where his voice was coming from exactly, but when he spoke again, it seemed to be coming from a different place. "You kept me in the dark."  
"What...?" She found herself utterly lost now in the darkness of the room and of her confusion. "I don't know what you're saying-"  
"_You know very well what I mean you miserable **bitch**_!" He shouted. Without warning, his strong hands were on her wrists and she was flung to the ground. She let out a sharp scream of terror, fighting back. In the instants that he had been there, he was gone and she climbed frantically to her feet.  
"You've gone mad." Her voice broke slightly.  
"No, I've gone to see the truth. You used me." He said icily.  
"What are you talking about?!" She shouted as tears poured down her face. At last as she backed up, she found the door handle. Desperately she shook it, but to no avail. Hands closed hard about her waist. She tried to scream, but one clamped over her mouth.  
"Oh, hush now Analiese. We don't need you going anywhere and we don't need you screaming." There was a grunt as she was flung away from the door and to the ground. Fighting back sobs, she tried to scramble to her feet. "Didn't you enjoy our dancing this evening, dear cousin? I could dance to the beat of your heart now..."  
"Vlad..."  
"Yes, I know, there's something you need to talk to me about." Someone grabbed her hair from behind and wrenched her head back. She could almost see his eyes, glimmering maliciously in the dark. "What is it?"  
"Light the torches and I'll tell you." She said unevenly, breathing harshly.  
"I don't trust you anymore in the light than I do in this bloody darkness!" He snarled, still holding her head back. "What do you need to tell me?" His answer was a broken sob and a wild attempt on her part to hit his arm. Still holding her by her hair, he jerked her roughly to her feet. "Answer me you damn whore!" He said shrilly, one arm around her waist to prevent her from going anywhere. With a small cry, she slammed her foot down on his and tried to run. Now he held her by both arms, slamming her up against the wall. "Answer me!" Her tears began to subside and she stared at his face- she could see it clearly now- with utter hatred.  
"I love Gabriel." She said in a low, seething voice.   
Those words, which should have made her feel like she was on top of the world, instead sent her spinning down into Hell as she was flung once more, this time into a wood post that held up the canopy over Dracula's four-poster bed. Wild with fear and pain, she clambered through the curtain and onto the bed, then began to crawl for the other side. If she leapt off, on the other side, she might leave Vlad confused enough so that she could seize a weapon off his wall and hack her way out of the room... through him if she had to. However, just as she was about to reach her goal, he seized her by the ankles and began to drag her backwards. With a muffled scream of rage, she clung onto the comforters, trying to claw her way out of his grasp. In the end what she succeeded in doing was pulling off the comforters as he pulled her forcefully to her feet.  
"Why thank you, my dear, for undoing the bed!" He cried hoarsely, pulling her to him for a harsh, hard kiss, before throwing her onto the bed. As she tried to get up again, he pinned her down with his weight, his lips smashed against hers as his hands ripped at her gown. He bit down hard on her bottom lip. Pulling herself out of his grasp and ignoring the blood in her mouth, she sent a well-aimed punch flying into his face... but even that was not enough to deter him.   
"You have a fire that she will one day possess, but even your fire cannot shine away my darkness!" He hissed. Soon after, he was upon her, with his tearing hands and harsh words. Then, out of sheer terror, she forced herself down into a thoughtless oblivion.

* * *

Vladislaus Dracula could not figure out what was wrong with himself. He was in a vampire's mindset. He still felt soulless, hollow, still like a bloodsucking creature of the night. He was the terror of Transylvania, he killed and violated without discretion. He took pleasure from such acts.  
Why? Why was he in such terrible pain? Why did he feel the urge to cry as he saw her lying trembling before him and smelled the blood of her virginity as it slowly stained his sheets? Why did he feel so sick inside, like he had raped his own heart?  
"Go." He said to her roughly. "Leave me." He watched as she gathered her tattered garments around her in silence, then stood looking around herself as though for something she had lost. There were shattered bits of her everywhere, he knew, things she could never reclaim. Look, there lay her love for him. And there, trampled into the rug, her courage. Here, on the bed, her fiery determination and her maidenhood. "GO!" He shouted suddenly, rising to his feet and unlocking and opening the door. As she ran out of it, he slammed it shut, sinking down to his knees. Now he knew why it hurt. He had hurt the one he loved. She was not the one who committed the crime, someone had driven her to it. As he spoke to the darkness he had created around himself, tears of anger washed down his face. "It is not you that I want."

* * *

A/N Wow, that came out a lot more violent than I expected it to be... but what can I say? I was sick while I was writing this, humor me! Anyways, for those who skipped to the bottom (if any) Dracula brutally raped Analiese, then sent her out of the room, realizing that it was not she he was after.   
  
One more thing... what would yall think of a Carl/Gabriel story made up entirely of songfics? (i.e.: every chapter is a songfic) I've been playing around with it and I have some ideas... but I want to make sure everyone would like it. Please review! 


	11. Chapter 10: An Invitation to Die

A/N Okay, we are within spitting distance of the climax! In fact, you might call this part of the climax! I hope you enjoy it!

**HyperCaz**: Oh boy, it starts... heh, yea, everyone is going to stop liking me in these next two chapters.... I actually do give a minor explanation for why 'Van the Man' didn't come and save the day fairly early on in the chapter... And I'm sorry it had to be violent, (Carl the Stuffed Purple Dog made me do it!!!!!) but it furthers the plot.

**Mourn-today- BUFFY FOREVER! **Um, I'm not so sure my parents would want me givin' out my email... but if you want, you can ask questions in your reviews and I can respond here. Thanks for your review!

**Doris()**- Wow, I'm flattered to hear you saying all those things about my wee little story! I promise you, I won't let this die! I already have the next two chapters after this written anyways...

**Irish Anor- **Yes, it was cringes Anorel Tinuviel. Yes, Gabriel will lose his temper with Vlad in this chappie, but I'm afraid you have to wait one more for the violence:-)

Alright, here we go!

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Chapter 10:  
An Invitation to Die  
  
Analiese remembered nothing of the rest of the night. She had crawled back to her own bed after leaving Dracula's room and fallen asleep almost immediately, but around dawn she woke up in a cold sweat with tears leaving slimy trails on her face. Now her body and soul were beginning to ache and her heart scream out for comfort. Breathing harshly, she pulled herself out of bed and looked in the mirror, shuddering at the hideous state she was in. Every part of her being screamed out for Gabriel, and so she made her stumbling way through the dark corridors and up into the tower she knew his room was in.  
Van Helsing was fast asleep, having heard nothing of the tragic terror that happened just below him that night due to the thick stone floors and walls. His Hunter's instincts kicked in as Analiese knocked on the door, and he was out of bed in an instant, reaching for a sword on the wall. Just then, the door opened and a shaking Analiese stepped in. His heart stopped for her as he saw her condition: her clothes were hanging about her in rags, her lips were swollen and a huge purple bruise was forming on the side of her face. There were vicious cuts all over her arms and across her cleavage.  
"My God Analiese! Wh-what..?" Van Helsing stuttered, holding his arms out for her. She ran eagerly into his embrace, not caring how much it hurt her battered body, and buried her face in his shoulder. Wracking sobs nearly broke her all over again, and stained the shirt Van Helsing had worn to bed. He held her tightly, tears of his own forming as fear made his heart pound. "What happened to you?" He asked slowly, quietly. She drew back slightly, enough so that he could see her face and brush away her tears with butterfly kisses.  
"Vlad..." She said in a cracked voice. An oddly cold rage flooded Van Helsing at her single word. Now everything was making horrible, clear sense.  
"He... did this to you?" He asked calmly. She nodded soundlessly and lay her head on his shoulder again; he ran comforting hands along her back as he sought to control himself. _That bastard. That sodding bastard... _ "I want you to stay here for the day, alright Analiese?" He said slowly, guiding her to the bed and laying her down. She nodded numbly, wiping away a few of her tears. His hand stroked her cheek, catching those tears that she did not.  
"Won't you stay...?" She asked in a barely audible voice.  
"No, love. I'm going to go get you breakfast." He said gently. With utmost delicacy, he brushed his lips against hers. "And I'll tell the maid to bring you some fresh clothes." Unable to bear the sight of her a moment longer, he left the room. On his way out of the tower, he bumped into a maid and told her to go get a simple shift for Analiese, before heading down to the hall where he knew the others would be eating.  
This day, there was near silence at the table, hanging over the men sitting out it like a pregnant rain cloud. There was already tension in the air, but when Van Helsing entered it almost seemed to crackle with electricity. His mouth fixed in a tight line, he strode quickly over to his seat and sat down, beginning to eat.  
"Where is Analiese?" Carl asked innocently.  
"She felt sick. She's in bed resting." said the monster slayer tersely.  
"How could she not feel sick after locking lips with the likes of you?" hissed Daniel. At the moment, something very unexpected happened. James, who never interrupted the natural flow of life, threw down his fork and jerked himself to his feet.  
"How could she not feel sick after dancing all night with such filth as Vlad?" He spat. Daniel leapt to his feet as well, his hand on the dagger at his waist. James did not falter, his hands clenched to the point of white knuckles.  
"I'd cut your tongue out for saying such things as that!" David snarled, standing up as well.  
"And I'd cut his heart out for more reasons than one!" Carl declared, throwing down his utensils and pointing to Dracula as he stood. With a shout of rage, Daniel drew his dagger, David and Michael close behind him. William, James, Carl, and John rallied together, eying the others with obvious hatred but not drawing weapons. At that time, both Dracula and Van Helsing stood slowly and moved in front of their comrades.  
"Peace, my friends. Breakfast would not taste very good soured with their blood." Van Helsing said coolly. He did not know how they all knew what had happened, or if they knew at all, but he didn't need blood shed here.  
"What turned you into a peacemaker, Gabriel?" Dracula crooned with a soft and deadly smile.  
"Nothing. I would just so like to enjoy my breakfast." Van Helsing returned coolly.  
"Enjoy it, then." Returned the mocking Count, bowing cordially.  
"I thank you." Gabriel said as he sat. There was a lingering moment of anger as he began to eat again, but gradually the daggers were sheathed and the angry parties sat down. But after that exchange, no one seemed to want breakfast, and so, gradually, they trickled out, leaving Dracula and Van Helsing alone together.  
"I do not know what she sees in you, Gabriel." Dracula mused aloud as he paced, stopping to lean on the table in front of his 'friend.' "I look at you and I see death." When this did not seem to have an effect on the aloof man, he continued to pace.  
"I know what you did to her." Van Helsing said quietly after a moment.  
"But do you know why?" Dracula cried with sudden vehemence. "Murderer they call you, Gabriel Van Helsing, you should know what it is to have blood on your hands. Let us say that what blood of hers I spilt last night was spilt on your behalf!"  
"You have no conscience to remove guilt from, so I do not see why you seek to pin something that is nonexistent on me." replied the other silkily.  
"You say I have no conscience, feel no guilt!" Dracula shouted, slamming his hands down on the table in front of Van Helsing. "I feel too much guilt over what I did, because I pursued the wrong person! I never intended to hurt her! It was you, you and your biting betrayal that drove me to what I did! The sin is yours, not mine!" For a quiet moment, Van Helsing watched Dracula with an expressionless face. Then, he stood and began to walk out of the hall. Dracula watched him leave; as his hand touched the doorknob, he shouted after him. "Remember this, murderer and adulterer! Without blood, there is no remission of sin!" Still wordless, Van Helsing left the Count to his tormented thoughts.

* * *

He managed to prevent himself from showing emotion of any kind until he reached the stairs to the tower he slept in. It was his fault! He should've listened to Carl, should've seen this coming! The looks Vlad gave Analiese were filled with more than the love between two cousins! If only he hadn't been blinded by his need to feel some semblance of closeness to Anna... She was taking over him... _Oh god Anna, I miss you so... I'm 400 years across live, death and time away from you, and I've never needed you more than this moment. Take me away, Anna, fill up this emptiness as only you can... _For a few moments he slumped against the wall, overcome, but then he dragged himself to his feet and plodded up the stairs.  
He almost burst into the room and turned to see Analiese still lying on the bed but now in the new shift. She sat up as he entered, a look of fear on her face. His heart breaking in two, he rushed over to the bed, arms out as though to embrace her; she recoiled with a whimper of fear. Sadness softened his features and he began to back away, but she reached for him again, the burnt child reaching for the flame. He sank down on bed beside her, enveloping her in his arms. While it seemed that he was trying to mend her hurts and fill up all the cracks Dracula had left when he had broken her, she was filling up his hurts as much as he was healing her. For a long while they lay like that, each trying to find some shred of hope and meaning. It was Analiese who drew back first.  
"I should go out and face them. I need to show Vlad that I am not afraid." She said as she pulled herself to her feet, wrapping her arms around her waist.  
"Fear keeps us alive, it is not a thing to be ashamed of." Van Helsing said quietly, standing behind her and slipping his arms under hers. She held his hands as she spoke.  
"I did not mean to hurt him. I wanted to see... if you truly felt for me. I thought that that was the only way I could know." She replied after a moment.  
"All you had to do was ask. I'd tell you how I felt." He whispered, kissing her head lightly. Presently, someone knocked on the door. Crossing the room to open it, Van Helsing discovered that it was Carl. "Please come in." He said a little hollowly.  
"Thank you." said the Friar as he entered. Analiese turned to face him.  
"Hullo Carl." She said with the weakest of smiles.  
"What's Dracula done to you?" He asked in a tone of horror, his hands falling to his sides.  
"What's that you've got?" Van Helsing asked suspiciously, seeing the sealed parchment in his friend's hand.  
"Daniel gave it to me. Said it was from Vlad and for you alone." replied the redhead, handing over the paper. Van Helsing paused only to look at the seal; how well he knew it, the dragon in a circle. Then he opened it and read it aloud:  
  
_Gabriel,  
  
Honor calls me to challenge you this night, in the hall where we have shared so many days, to a duel. The weapons shall be swords, and shields will be allowed for defense. I will not permit seconds; this is between us and us alone. Arrive at the hall ere midnight takes its toll or be branded a coward.  
  
Vladislaus Dracula  
_  
"He wants to duel you? Does it say if it's to the death or not?" Carl asked, his eyes wide. He had expected Dracula to outright try and kill Van Helsing, not duel him for honor's sake.  
"I think it's just a formality, a reason to get me in a certain place at a certain time with a weapon. He wants me dead. After the rest of you left the hall this morning, we spoke. He blames me for what he did to Analiese, calling it my sin. He says he still loves her and in his anger with me for betraying our oath not to pursue her he vented on her. Then he said something about no remission of sin without blood." Van Helsing explained calmly.  
"No! I won't let you fight him!" Analiese cried tearfully.  
"Analiese, I have to!" He said tersely.  
"No, no you don't! If it's anyone's fault, it is mine for playing games! I should be punished!" She continued in the same voice.  
"You do not deserve punishment like this! You did nothing wrong by not loving him! I betrayed a promise that we made to try and prevent something like this, I outraged his honor and so I have to fight and die if that is the case!" Van Helsing said a little angrily.  
"It is my honor that has been outraged, I should be the one who fights and dies!" She shouted.  
"No" Van Helsing cried with sudden fear. "Don't even speak of death." He said in a low, harsh voice as he gripped her shoulders. "I could not bear to see you die again."  
"And I cannot even bear the _thought_ of you being so close to death! He could kill you Gabriel, _kill_ you!" She cried, not catching his slip of tongue as she grasped his shoulders in return.  
"Analiese, never doubt this: there is no other way I'd rather die than for your sake. If it healed your wounds, there is no one I would not kill." His face was so full of agony that Analiese fell silent for a moment. Then she sank into his embrace, holding his face close against her shoulder.  
"God be with us this night..." She whispered fervently. At last, Van Helsing drew back.  
"Carl, go to Vlad or one of his friends. Tell them I accept his invitation." Carl nodded and set off.   
As soon as the Friar was gone, Van Helsing returned to Analiese's embrace. He would fight Dracula because he had the chance to fight back. So many things that had befallen him had been things beyond his control, things he could not fight back against. Things such as Anna's death. Now, he was being given the chance to fight back. He could almost make it seem like he was avenging all those things he had no control over. Like he was avenging Anna.  
Funny, he had forgotten that he was supposed to kill Dracula for the Order. Now it had become all about Anna and Analiese. He wondered momentarily if that was good or not.  
Feeling exhausted from his thoughts, he drew back finally.  
"Let's get some rest." He told Analiese, leading her to the bed and curling up on the armchair next to it. He knew he would need his rest but would be able to find no sleep.  
There was killing and dying to be done that night.

* * *

A/N Okay peoples, I think I may have had Van Helsing going a little Anna obsessive there, but I needed to portray that because since that is his whole motivation for loving Analiese... because she's like Anna. Next comes the big climax! 


	12. Chapter 11: Bloodbath

Disclaimer- Haven't done one of these in a while... I own nothing except for the plot, Daniel, Michael, David, William, John, James, and Analiese. Anything pertaining to _Van Helsing_ is not mine. I do, however, own Carl the Stuffed Purple Dog....

A/N- After a couple hours of listening to the _Hunchback of Notre Dame_'s song 'Sanctuary' and Evanescence's 'Tourniquet' for mood I whipped up this. I am actually very happy with the way it turned out, but all I can say is... look at the chapter title. It speaks volumes.  
  
**Doris()**- Wow, I did not know that ff.net updated things so quickly.... I was still on, reading some fics, when I got your review... Yea, that chapter felt a little off with me too, but I couldn't quite get it to work. It was a 'transition' chapter, if you will, it didn't have much meat on it. I promise you, this one will be better! And I'm very glad to hear you say that about Analiese, that was exactly what I was going for.  
**Chia()**- Thanks for your review! I love Dracula dearly... I hate being so cruel to him! He does show a little 'spark' at the end of this... but whether I am merciful to him or not is up to you:-)  
**Hypercaz()**- I hope that wasn't sarcasm...? Sorry, I just can't tell if you were implying that he didn't get mad enough or if he was seriously pissed at the end. I know he didn't really lose it at _Vlad_ in the other chapter, but I was saving that anger for this.  
**Irish Anor**- Your reviews crack me up! And if you feel like killing me after you read this... blame it on yourself cuz you asked me to update:-)  
  
This chapter is dedicated to my good friend Katze... a.k.a Bitchie Witchie. I use part of our 'infamous fight scene' in this chapter (she knows what I am talking about:-)

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Chapter 11:  
Bloodbath  
  
He awoke, still in the armchair, around an hour before midnight. Analiese was still asleep in the bed next to him; he resisted the urge to stroke her cheek. If she awoke, she would throw a fit about him going to duel Dracula, maybe even try and come with him. Gabriel Van Helsing didn't need her to be caught in the crossfire. He spent a few minutes stretching out his considerable muscle, then pulled on his boots and headed down the stairs and out of the tower.  
The armory was across the hall from the tower entrance, along with the library. Silent as death, he went to the armory. Moonlight shone in, casting glitter all over the swords, axes, spears and shields in the room. He walked into its milky light, the shadows he cast along the walls seeming so much more huge than he was; the things we fear the most are always much larger than we think they are. Absently, he ran his hands over each of the blades, trying to chose one that suited him. Normally, he wouldn't attack with a sword, but he had no other choice. Even as he was trying to choose a weapon, he was trying to surround his heart with walls of stone. He had to think of Vlad Dracula as a monster, not as his best friend, if he was going to kill him.  
"Van Helsing?" asked a small, familiar voice from behind him. The hunter turned slowly to see Carl standing there, a sleepy look on his face.  
"What are you doing here, Carl?" He asked quietly.  
"I fell asleep in the library reading, and I heard someone open the door. I wanted to come wish you luck." The Friar mumbled, rubbing his eyes.  
"I wish you a good night's sleep." smiled Van Helsing.  
"I won't be able to sleep for worrying about you. Please, be careful." He pleaded.  
"Aren't I always?" He grinned.  
"Well, actually, if I was to go through and analyze my records of all your missions, I'd come to the conclusion that-" Carl began in his usual way before Van Helsing raised a hand to silence him.  
"That was rhetoric." He said with a wry and gentle smile.  
"I never liked rhetoric. I like answers." Carl replied, seeming a little miffed.  
"We all do." Van Helsing became distant once more, turning back to the weapons. At last he chose one; it was buried in a corner of the room behind some shields. The blade was slender and fine with a simple iron crossbar that had only a single gem on it. He also selected a worn wooden shield (A/N- honestly, I can't remember what their shields looked like in the movie... oh well, I'm makin' it up!) that was black with a red cross on it. "How do I look?"  
"If I say awful, will you stay?" Carl asked sadly.  
"Do me a favor." Van Helsing said, clasping Carl's shoulder. "Pray for me."  
"Do _me_ a favor. Stop breaking my shoulder." replied his friend with a sarcastic grin. In response, Van Helsing laughed quietly and squeezed harder, causing the Friar to yelp, before exiting the room. Neither had the heart to say goodbye.

* * *

Outside the castle, James walked furiously for the glen. He had seen Dracula and Daniel head in that direction on horseback shortly before him, and knew that couldn't be good, but hadn't had a chance to grab his own horse and pursue. It was quieter on foot anyway.  
As he reached the glen, he couldn't hear or see them anymore. He cursed and began to pace back and forth, back and forth. Analiese! It was all her fault. Everything was coming out how he had feared. And he was terribly afraid. He froze all of the sudden, hearing the voices of Vlad and Daniel.  
"What do you have in mind for me?" Daniel asked.  
"You know how evenly matched... _he_... and I are, correct? If we are left alone, it will never go anywhere." Daniel must've nodded here, because James did not hear a response. They spoke so quietly, he could scarcely hear them anyways. "I want you to be an... insurance policy....you.....our best archer..." James froze entirely, the blood pounding in his ears making it hard to heard. _Dear God, no_... "....that alcove in the hall...the statue once was?....covered it with a tapestry... take your best crossbow.... hide there... you should know what to do then."  
"Aye."  
"Good."  
There was the sound of hoofbeats pounding away; James burst out of the glen to see Vlad and Daniel galloping back towards the castle. NO! His mind screamed. He had to warn Gabriel that he was being cheated! But he could never get back in time... Cursing, he took off at a dead sprint.

* * *

Van Helsing walked into the hall just before midnight, his sword unsheathed. A faint breeze snaked through the room, causing decorations to twitch limply. Clouds had taken the moon and stars into their opaque grasp, cutting off their light. It was nigh impossible to see.  
His footsteps echoed eerily as he slowly began to walk again, every sense on highest alert. Thunder muttered darkly somewhere nearby. It distracted him for a moment.  
"Hello, Gabriel."  
Van Helsing whirled, sword out and shield up, but could see no one. A crack of lightening revealed Dracula; he stood up by the table they had ate at. His arms were relaxed at his sides, his sword and shield lazily brushing the ground. A few strands of his ebony hair fell across his face in oblique lines as he smiled maliciously. Suddenly the flash ended and they were in darkness once more.  
"Hello." Van Helsing replied tightly, his sword and shield still up.  
"Why so eager to fight?" There was a dreadful scraping noise; Van Helsing knew that Dracula grew closer, dragging his sword and shield with him. The next flash in the spring electric storm revealed him to be much closer in a stance similar to before. Van Helsing raised his shield slightly. "A cross? Please Gabriel. That would not repel me. I am not a vampire anymore." He was even closer as the thunder roared, much closer now. He ran his hand along the painted cross. "But if I was a vampire, I'm sure I could dance to the beat of your heart right now..." He began to tap his hand against the shield like a heartbeat, gradually louder, louder, faster, faster. With the next flash, he drew back slightly and sank into an en guarde stance, his shield in front of him and sword raised. "What do you say, my friend?" The clouds parted slightly, casting moonbeams in a cage all around them. "Shall we dance?" Without warning, he let loose a violent side-to-side slash aimed for Van Helsing's head.  
Van Helsing ducked and brought up his shield to intercept the blow, holding Dracula's sword up above his head with it. Then he lunged forward, his sword aimed for Dracula's gut. Dracula swept the blow aside with his own shield and, leaving Van Helsing thus exposed, kicked him squarely in the chest and sending him skidding. As Dracula advanced on him, shield up and sword high, Van Helsing scrambled to regain his feet and met the downward strike.  
Metal rang as their swords met; there was a sharp crack as their shields smashed together. They were locked together there if only for an instant, staring into each other's eyes. But then Dracula spun quickly away, his momentum sent Van Helsing flying once more. Now they were switched, and Van Helsing had his back to the tapestry by the table. There was the telltale click of a crossbow being loaded...  
Van Helsing feinted left than struck right, but Dracula had suspected that and ignored the first blow to catch the second. He knew that whenever Van Helsing struck left in a slash it was a feint; he favored his right slash. Dracula himself lunged, but was forced to dart out of the way when Van Helsing blocked the attack with his shield and sent his sword in a downward slash to lop Dracula's head off. Stumbling, he rolled to the side and Van Helsing's right. The Hunter turned to face him as he stood, his back once more to the tapestry.  
As they fought viciously across the hall, whirling back, forward, in, out, and around in a cage of wood and metal, Van Helsing's mind seemed to drift away. His hands and feet knew every step of this deadly dance, leaving him free to think. He thought of how poignant, perfect, and painful this was; he was either to die at his best friend's hands or to kill him with his own. That's what happens when love and war, two of the most powerful things on this Earth, intercept; you are given all the passion of love, and the pain of war. The grief that links both is increased tenfold. You end up fighting against those you care about most, spilling the blood of the hearts you once held so dear. It hurts more than anything else on Earth. But this, this made perfect sense. The first blood each had drawn was on the other when they first learned to fight. It was well that the last blood would be drawn by that same person.  
Van Helsing was jolted out of his reverie as Dracula caught him in a sword lock, holding him there. The Hunter frowned. Why didn't he go in for the kill...?  
"_Gabriel_!" Shouted a familiar voice. Van Helsing turned his head in just enough time to see James, sword up, charging at the tapestry by the table. A crossbow was poking out of it...  
The bolt (A/N- For anyone who doesn't know this, projectiles fired from a crossbow are called bolts. At least, I think they are...) struck James so hard that he fell to the ground, his sword clattering out of his hand. A pool of red began to form around him as he convulsed, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, then lay still.  
"He always did irritate me." Said a dark voice from behind the tapestry. It was then that Van Helsing knew... he was not alone.  
"Traitor!" He snarled at Dracula, dancing away before the shooter could get a chance to reload.  
"I had prayed that would be the last thing you ever said to me. Such a pity you are yet alive as you say it." Dracula grinned wickedly, pressing his attack.  
"Then I'll spit it back in your face when I'm standing over your dying body, just so you can pretend that it's me dying and not you!" He growled back, blocking Vlad's attack and going in for a vicious riposte.  
Their fighting now grew even more intense, fueled by rage and hate. Van Helsing was like white hellfire, never staying in one place for long, his defenses equally as devastating as his attacks. Dracula was hard pressed to get him over by the tapestry again, and fear began to gnaw at his stomach. How could he defeat this man when he moved like mercury across the floor and struck like iron?  
They were now at the opposite side of the hall, where Van Helsing had first entered from. There was the sound of metal on metal, the shouts of battle, in the hallway leading to the tower, armory, and library...  
"What have you done?" Gabriel shouted at Dracula, holding him in a sword lock. Dracula responded by shoving his best friend turned archenemy against the wall.  
"I have done nothing!" Dracula yelled back.  
"This fight was between us. What drove you to take it to our friends too?" He said, his voice low and cracking with fury.  
"I told you, I did not intend for them to be involved!" Dracula screamed, slamming his shield, side first, into Van Helsing's ribs, then throwing him to the floor.  
While Van Helsing lay on the floor gasping for breath, Dracula threw his sword to the side, kicked Van Helsing's own away, and picked him up by this throat, dragging him over towards the tapestry. Van Helsing's head began to swim and dots dance before his eyes as he made peace with God, but then he heard the voice of his salvation.  
"_Van Helsing_!" Carl shouted. Through his darkening vision, Van Helsing could see the little Friar, blood matting his hair and robes. He held what appeared to be a short sword. Praying he knew what he was doing, he flung the short sword at Dracula...  
And missed.  
But it did not hit Van Helsing. It went straight through Dracula's shield, still strapped to his forearm, and stuck out the other side. In the moment of shocked silence that followed, another crossbow bolt ripped through the air. But it wasn't aimed at Van Helsing. It found it's target... right in Carl's chest.  
"Good thing I have better aim than your friend..." The voice from behind the curtain chuckled.  
"_Carl_!" Van Helsing screamed as his dearest friend slumped slowly to the ground, succumbing to darkness, a new pool of blood spreading out around him.   
Tears of pain and anger bit savagely at Van Helsing's eyes as he kicked Dracula in the stomach, causing the duelist to fling him to the ground. With a wordless cry, he threw himself onto Dracula, trying to choke him. As he heard another bolt being fired, he rolled so that Dracula was on top of him. The bolt just barely missed them...  
With a grunt, Dracula slammed his fist into Van Helsing's face, stunning the man enough so that he could wriggle out of his grasp. When he did so, his shield caught on a gap in the flagstones; to get away, he just yanked out of the straps that held him to it. It fell to the ground, face up. He leapt to his feet, bracing himself as Van Helsing charged. With lightening, snakelike motions, he drew a knife from his boot and moved to plunge it into the charging man's chest.  
Thinking quickly and realizing he couldn't dodge the strike, Van Helsing turned to the side and allowed the knife to go into his upper arm, drawing a sharp cry of pain from his lips. Dracula pulled it out again and raised it high, preparing for the killing blow as his archenemy fell to his knees. But the next thing he saw was the ceiling, for a sly Van Helsing had tripped him up when he intended to strike. Cursing vibrantly, he leapt up again, raising his bloodied knife once more.  
Van Helsing knew in his heart that the battle was about to end. Their bloodlust was overcoming them, they had gone back to being as primal and savage as beasts. _Funny,_ He thought. _Four hundred years from now, we will be fighting as beasts... _Locked in a mortal struggle, they staggered back and forth. Gabriel was latched onto Vlad's wrists, not letting him drive home the fatal strike. He could feel himself collapsing, the warm blood from the wound on his arm pouring down over him. He realized it might be the last thing he ever felt. The salty tears and sweat on his face and the warm torrent of blood on his arm. And his internal anguish. Carl... James... his friends... they were all dead. Anna was dead, Analiese's spirit might be broken forever...  
Might.  
Just as his muscles were about to give in, he made one last, desperate move. He swept his foot around, catching Vlad off guard, then shoved him down with all his might.  
He landed on his shield, his eyes wide with shock as the short sword that Carl had imbedded there impaled him. Light, color, sound, and feeling fluttered away from him. He cried out in pain that words could not express, knowing he would never, ever feel these again. He was dying, becoming hollow. He tried to beg for those things that the living had to return to him, hand outstretched, but the blood rising in his throat garbled the words and they slipped beyond his grasp forever. He had never fought so hard against something in his long life, and never lost more miserably.  
"I will see you again, Gabriel..." He whispered as Van Helsing bent over him. Strangely enough, he wished that those tears staining the man's face were for him. It would be nice to have someone crying for him... But then the tears of blood weeping from his wound carried with them the last vestige of life, and he went numb in death's cold embrace.

* * *

Van Helsing slowly fell to his knees, numb with shock. He had done it. He had killed the man who was once his best friend. He didn't know what to think, wasn't capable of thinking as the blood coming from his wound mixed with the blood coming from Vlad's mortal one. He knew what he had cried out for as he died: hope, love, and life. He knew he was losing those precious things forever.  
"I'm sorry that you could not have those things." He whispered softly.  
"Gabriel...?" Came a soft, feminine voice from the door Carl had come through. Van Helsing looked up to see Analiese, the bottom of her white shift dripping in blood, coming into the hall. He had told her to stay in the tower no matter the costs, but the forces of fear and intuition had drive her there. He pulled himself to his feet.  
"Analiese... Anna..." He whispered, stretching out his arms for her. With a strangled cry, she rushed towards him. This was what he had been fighting for, he remembered now.  
She closed in on him, and as he was about to embrace her warmth, her body arched weirdly, as if some invisible force behind her was pushing her forward. Her head was thrown back, and her knees seemed to buckle under her. "Analiese!" Van Helsing cried, catching her as she fell. Sobbing, he fell to one knee and braced her against it. Looking into her eyes, he saw them to be as still and unmoving as the rest of her. "NO!" He shouted, seeing the bloody hole in her chest, pumping waves of red over her white gown.  
"If he can't have her, no one can!" shouted a shrill voice from behind them.   
Van Helsing looked up; there stood Daniel, the tapestry behind him wavering, crossbow in hand. His sobs quieting, Van Helsing lay her on her side, watching with an odd sort of fascination as the blood from her wound seeped into his boots and the ground. There was silence for a moment as a shaking Daniel tried to reload his crossbow, then a sickening crunch. Daniel froze in his task as he saw Van Helsing stand, the bolt from Analiese's back in hand. He fumbled once more to arm his crossbow, but it clattered to the ground and his muscles seemed unable to do the work required to retrieve it.  
Silent as a hunting cat, Van Helsing went to Carl's still form and wrenched the bolt out of him too. Then he turned to face Daniel and walked towards him calmly.  
"No... please, Gabriel don't!" Daniel cried, backing against the wall. Van Helsing pinned him there. Slowly, he lifted the arrow he had taken from Carl's body and twirled it lithely in and out of his fingers.   
"You killed Carl. You killed my right hand. And for that, I deprive you of the use of yours." He suddenly stabbed the arrow through Daniel's right hand; the man screamed and began to weep, begging for mercy. Tears of his own began to slip down his face as the Hunter raised the arrow he had removed from Analiese. "You killed Analiese. You destroyed my heart. And for that, I deprive you of the use of yours." So saying, he plunged the arrow into Daniel's chest and began to turn it in a circle, before finally shoving it all the way through. With a strange choking noise, the man fell limp in Van Helsing's grasp. With surprising gentleness, he lay the shooter down before staggering back over to Carl. He knew now... he was alone.  
Gathering his dearest friend, the little redheaded Friar, into his arms, he began to sob bitterly. He knew he was alone, he knew why the bottom inch of Analiese's shift was soaked in blood. All his friends, and Dracula's, had been in a fight outside in the hallway. Somehow, Carl had escaped the carnage, only to be shot down by Daniel.  
With heavy, faltering footsteps, he tried to carry Carl over to Analiese, but found his strength waning, he was forced to half drag both himself and his dead friend over to her. Cursing the world and all its cruelty, he gathered both into his arms and allowed his sorrow to overtake them.  
The blood on the floor began to mingle, his and Analiese's and Carl's and Dracula's and Daniel's. The doorway leading the tower had its own pools of blood. All these people, they didn't deserve to bleed together. Some deserved an honorable death, away from this horrid bloodbath, while others deserved no better. And yet there they all were, bleeding together, all bound by one common thread:  
Him. Gabriel Van Helsing.  
Some of their blood was spilt for him, some because of him, and some by him. But it was all linked to him. As he held his two dear ones closer against him, he envied his former self for not remembering this. He didn't want to remember this. Maybe God had not cursed him with no memory. Maybe... God had blessed him. As he sobbed even harder, he wished that his tears would join together as their blood had and wash away the scarlet sea lapping all around him.

* * *

_A/N- If any of you feel the sudden urge to kill me, read this first: THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY! THAT FAT LADY AIN'T SINGING YET! This is just the end of part one folks, we got a whiles to go!_


	13. Chapter 12: My Immortal

Disclaimer I just realized. I killed everything I owned. Except Carl the Stuffed Purple Dog, who is ((unfortunately)) still alive. I don't own _Van Helsing_, nor do I own the Shakespearean Sonnet in this chapter, and I am currently broke cuz I just bought a Game Cube. So don't sue me! Unless you _really_ want my stuffed purple dog....  
  
A/N I should apologize for the very senseless and cruel joke I just played on all of you in that last chapter. I think my evilness as one Dracula's Brides is kicking in... cuz I had too much fun reading all your reviews!!!  
  
**Doris()-** Heh, actually, I DID just kill everyone. I'm glad you think this is convincing, and you weren't confusing at all. That chapter was meant to leave everyone in a state of shock.:-)  
**HyperCaz()**- Okay, I just wanted to make sure... Carl the Stuffed Purple Dog made me kill Carl!!!!!! It wasn't me!!!!! And who says Carl needs GABRIEL to bring him back...?  
**Irish Anor**- Van Helsing, I really feel for you man. First she snuggles you incessantly, and then she says you should die!!! And no, that chapter wasn't Sauron's idea (he ticked me off a while ago and we haven't talked since) it was all Carl the Stuffed Purple Dog. Dracula helped too, against his will....  
**Anthem82**- Thank you so much! I'm glad you like it!  
**Gabrielle Dragulia**- Thanks for your review, and here's the update! (I update pretty much every day, but I usually wait for at least three reviews.)  
**Anna()**- Don't worry, once you start reviewing and reading other peoples reviews, you learn 'how' to review and critique. It takes practice. Me, I don't mind being flattered, so I loved your review!

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Chapter 12:  
My Immortal  
  
He took them to the cliff. The same cliff, with its waving grasses and breathtaking view of the sea, that he had burned Anna on. The sea was stretched out, grey and restless, far below him, the sea that she had always yearned to catch a glimpse of. It was not yet dawn, perhaps forty-five minutes before it. Van Helsing had only taken time to bind his wound, clean himself up and clean up Carl and Analiese before leaving the now silent castle. One other act had been preformed; as soon as he could collect himself and lay down the cold bodies of Analiese and Carl, he had gone to Dracula's. Guilt and sorrow had knifed through him for one brief instant. That man had been his best friend, and he had killed him. No amount of rationalization could justify that. As an odd sort of remembrance, he had tried to take the ring he wore, but rigor mortis had made that impossible. So, taking the same knife he had been stabbed with, he cut off Vlad's finger and managed to at last work the ring off. Then he had brought Analiese and Carl here. Here, to this beautiful place, so full of memories. It was the same, exactly the same, as he remembered it. Some places, and some pains, are ageless.  
He stumbled about, half-dead, building two pyres. Much blood had been lost from the wound Dracula had given him; the knife had gone all the way through his upper arm, only narrowly missing the bone, and even nicked his ribs on the other side. But the fact that he should be resting, and the knowledge that the work of riding, carrying bodies, and building pyres was probably agitating the wound, didn't matter to him at all. People had suffered far worse injuries than he that night. People had lost their lives.  
His work was done within twenty minutes, and he lifted first Carl into his arms and lay him down. Tears that he had sworn he wouldn't cry began to nip aggravatingly at his eyes, and he shook them away viciously as he lifted Analiese onto her pyre. But as he looked into her face, realizing that there was no one to read holy words over her, he began to shake with the force of his tears. He could no longer even tell that they were sliding down his face; he had grown numb to such things from crying so much that night.  
Now Van Helsing was crying because he had realized how hopeless all of this was. This wasn't some holy crusade he was on, this was senseless murder. Every time he embarked on another mission for God, more good people were lost to the world. He hoped he could change that. He hoped that he could bring light to this dark and frigid place. Maybe some faint part had hoped that by loving Analiese he could save Anna. _Well I was wrong! _He mentally screamed at himself, his throat too tired to actually form the words. _My love killed her all over again!_  
Anna.... Four hundred years from then, he would be standing on the cliff once more, burning her. What was the point? He defeated evil, went through all this pain, recovered, only to find that a new and greater evil had arrived with new and greater suffering. If he was truly the Left Hand of God, he was going to pray for an amputation.  
Then something else new settled over him. Analiese. Anna's ancestor. She was dead. What if that wasn't how it had happened before? What if that meant that Anna would now never even exist? He began to breathe harshly, looking to the sky. It felt as if the whole world was pulling in around him, like his soul was shrinking down. He was beginning to panic. What had he done...? But then he calmed. The morning before he had spoken to Analiese. Asked casually, and without thinking, about a sister and a brother. That meant that Anna was not Analiese's _direct_ descendent. As long as those two siblings lived, Anna would exist. He began to take deep and steadying breaths, preserving himself for an existence he no longer wanted.  
Van Helsing stood and went to his horse, taking the torch he had brought with him out of the saddlebag. With the implements he had also brought, he lit it and moved first to Carl's pyre. _I have to let go now... let those fires consume his body and hers, and maybe some of my sorrow with it..._ He coughed as he inhaled the smoke slightly, then slowly lowered the tip of the flame to Carl's robes.  
"**_Ouch! No! Ah! Stop it! I swear I didn't do it Van Helsing! Don't kill me!_**" The 'dead' Friar shrieked, leaping off of his pyre and furiously patting down the flames on his robes. Needless to say Van Helsing was currently standing there, torch in hand, swollen eyes wide, and staring. "What?" Carl asked in his innocent way. "Have I got ash on my face or something?" He crossed his eyes in an attempt to see his nose.  
On a complete whim, Van Helsing flung the torch onto the empty pyre and wrapped Carl in the world's biggest known bear hug.  
"You're alive! Thank God, you're alive Carl!" He cried joyously, holding his best friend tightly.  
"I... won't be.... for... much... longer.... if.... you... don't.... stop....hugging.... me...." He rasped out feebly.  
"Oh... woops." Van Helsing said sheepishly, dropping the Friar six inches to the ground.  
"Thank you." He coughed, rubbing his neck.  
"But... how...?" asked the Monster Slayer in disbelief. "You were dead. You had no pulse. I saw Daniel shoot you..."  
"I was napping. Getting shot in the chest does take it out of one." Van Helsing rolled his eyes.   
"But _how_?" He reiterated.  
"Well, I suppose my theory was correct." Carl shrugged.  
"Which theory? Martin Luther has nothing on you for those things." Van Helsing said dryly.  
"For one thing, Martin Luther wrote _theses_. For another thing, I'm shocked that you actually have the slightest inkling as to who he is and what he did. You don't look to me like the bookish or the religious type." Van Helsing glowered at him momentarily. "Anyway, I'm talking about the one in which I told you we couldn't die before we were born."  
"Yes, but you only said that that applied to old age. And you said that we could still be harmed." Van Helsing frowned.  
"True, I didn't even consider that we would completely _immortal_. It just... seemed out of the question to me." Carl said earnestly, shaking his head.   
"You didn't stop to consider a lot of things when coming on this mission. First the clothes, now this!" Van Helsing shook his head. "Honestly Carl, you're losing your touch."  
"And gaining some of yours, I suppose. I actually partook of _violence_ while you were dueling Dracula." Carl said, looking at Van Helsing in the way a puppy eager for praise does. (A/N Think of Smeagol in the Two Towers!)  
"You were fighting with the others in the hall? And how many people did you kill?" Van Helsing asked skeptically.  
"Well, um, technically, 1/2. You see, John was overwhelmed by David, so I snuck up behind him and hit him over the head with my short sword, causing him to fall unconscious and giving John a chance to stab him." He puffed up with pride.  
"And after that?" Van Helsing asked in a similar voice.  
"Uhh, I don't remember. I fell prey to a similar technique and fell on top of David."  
"So that's how your hair came to be matted with blood..... Wait, on top of _David_?" Van Helsing looked aghast. "You cheated on me, Carl!" The Friar had a look of indescribable shock on his face, before it faded.  
"Well, this discovery of our immortality just makes matters so much better." Carl said bitterly, crossing his arms.  
"What?" came his friend's muddled reply.  
"Now, no matter how damn annoying you get over the next four hundred years, I'm stuck with you!" He beamed. Van Helsing smiled softly and put his hand on Carl's shoulder.  
"Thank you, Carl." He whispered. In a comfortable silence, they turned to Analiese, on her pyre. "She won't be leaping up anytime soon, will she?" He asked quietly.  
"I don't suppose so." Carl admitted.  
Van Helsing brushed a few strands of her hair, displaced by the wind, out of her pale face. Death could never mar her beauty, as it could not mar Anna's. Unbidden, a poem Carl had once recited to him came to mind:  
  
_Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?  
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:  
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,  
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:  
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,  
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,  
And every fair from fair sometime declines;  
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:  
But thy eternal summer shall not face  
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st  
Nor shall death brag thou wandr'st in his shade  
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st  
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,  
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee...  
_  
He remembered sitting in the library with Carl, just a day or two after they returned from Transylvania. He had been wandering the Order's headquarters aimlessly; even as he grieved for Anna, the evil powers of the world seemed to be grieving for Dracula and there was nothing for him to pursue. Carl had sidled into the library shortly after him and sat down nearby, reading. Then he began to read that sonnet aloud; Van Helsing immediately had connected it with Anna, and a gesture on the Friar's part to console him. Later, not willing to admit that he had liked it to Carl, he had gone back and found the book and committed it to memory. Every time he thought of it or recited it, he felt like the poem was indeed making Anna immortal.  
"Would you like me to read over Analiese?" Carl asked gently after a few moments.  
"Yes." Van Helsing whispered.  
"I'll see what I can do from memory." Carl moved to the side of the pyre as Van Helsing produced another torch and lit it on what would've been Carl's pyre. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, then slowly let the flame touch Analiese.   
Almost immediately, Carl began to speak in Latin. While he didn't understand a thing the Friar said, the low, constant hum of his voice soothed Van Helsing. He watched the cremation, not really seeing the flickering flames. The lull of his friend's voice and the similarity between Analiese and Anna made him feel closer to his dead beloved than anything else could've. He savored those moments, feeling as those she was very near to him. Her soft yet fiery and strong presence, even the scent that he connected with her, was borne on the sea breeze and blowing all about him...  
_I miss you_... It seemed to whisper.  
_I miss you too_... He whispered back.  
Carl noticed that Van Helsing didn't even seem to realize that he had stopped speaking. He was lost in thought, and realizing how rare and precious a moment like that was for the Vampire Hunter, Carl decided to leave him be. But as the fire died and he still showed no sign of moving, he came to the conclusion that Van Helsing was indeed LOST in his thoughts (how anyone could lost in a mind so small he was at a loss to explain) and he should probably snap him out of it.  
"Van Helsing...?" He asked quietly, touching the motionless man's shoulder.  
"Anna..." He said faintly, sadly, then starting and looking owlishly at the Friar.   
Carl instantly felt bad for his mental bashing of Van Helsing's intelligence; he had a different kind. It wasn't the upfront genius of his (if he said so himself) but a deeper, more mellow kind. Most other people saw him as a mindless murderer, but a select few (probably just Anna and himself) knew that he could not afford the think in battle, it would mean death. But he had a huge mind, much of it blank from amnesia, the rest running too deep to be accurately perceived. The fact that he hid his thoughts from all around him probably didn't help much either.  
"You... do know what this means, right?" He asked.  
"Yes." Van Helsing sighed bitterly. "We have to live through 400 years and kill Dracula all over again because everything happened the same as last time."  
"Don't worry, Gabriel, we did it once. We can do it again." Carl said kindly.  
"Yes. We can do it again." Van Helsing murmured.  
He looked up. He realized that these were the same heavens he had watched Anna disappear into what felt like ages ago, when it was really four hundred years in the future. As the rising sun, the first of thousands for him, began to paint those heavens, something that had been hovering in his mind began to dawn in full over him.  
Gabriel Van Helsing smiled.

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A/n 'Smile, it makes people wonder...' Anyways, 'Part One' of this story is now finished! Here we hit bedrock... I now have to go back into the movie for a brief but pivotal three chapters. I am having issues remembering all of it. Expect a little delay. 

--I COULD USE YOUR HELP WITH THE NEXT CHAPTER--

If you can remember, could you tell me in your review the schematics of the battle in the village with the Brides? Like, who does what, who says what, any important pieces of action that happen ((especially pertaining to Anna and what she does)) cuz all I remember is kinda how it started and how it ended

And one thing about the movie... I've realized that most of us are confused as to how Anna died. I didn't get it either, but after some thinking and another go at watching the movie, I think that Gabriel's weight crushed her sternum and caused her lungs to collapse, since there was no visible puncture wound. Anyways, enough of my rambling. REVIEW! 


	14. Chapter 13: Meetings Both New and Old

A/N Wow... I totally (excuse the So Cal girl coming out:-) didn't even realize that I had gone over 50 reviews on this.... THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL MY REVIEWERS! This is my first fic to have gotten so far.  
  
**Celia()**- Yea, I only got a brief chance to look at the part in the novelization. I'm going to be buying that as soon as I am no longer broke....  
**Katya S**- Yes, Anna will be alive in this chapter! But not because I resurrected her... Van Helsing will know her, but for her it will be like the first time.  
**HyperCaz()**- Yes, no more hurting Carl! And no sequel! It's all in the same fic! Just different PARTS. And thank you for all your awesome encouragement!  
**Spike Daft**- Yea, I read that part of the book... Thank you for your review, I'll have to go read your fic!  
**Naitriab**- Heh, thank you for not killing me over Carl... I had actually never even thought about writing those 400 years, but now that you've brought it up I might go back and redo it someday. And yes, we go back into the movie for three chapters.  
**ThePet**- Wow, brilliant and dramatic... thank you!  
**HealerAriel**- Yea, I had waaayyy too much fun with Dracula thinking they're gay (sick-minded nut... I love him:-)  
**Anthem82()**- Yea, I pretty much knew that... but thanks for your review all the same!  
**HealerAriel**- Great, now HyperCaz is snuggling Gabriel and you're snuggling Carl! LOL! Yea, they make a great team...  
**krinklyluck**- Here's the update, and thanks for your help!  
**Irish Anor** -...... you are officially my special friend. THIS CHAPTER WOULDN'T BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT YOUR SCARY MEMORIZATION OF THE WHOLE DAMN SCENE! LOL, thank you sooo much!  
**Allora**- LOL, if Carl has any doubts of his popularity, he just has to come read these reviews! Yall are so happy he's not dead... and thanks for your review!  
**Doris()**- Yes, school does suck! And Anna makes her big debut in this chapter... Yes, I found it odd myself that he loves Analiese and Anna as one person, but that was my reasoning for him falling for Anna in the first place. Subconsciously, she reminded him of Analiese. But this time around, Analiese reminded him of Anna. My mind is a funny little thing, ain't it?  
**Lovely()**- I glad you like my story! And it's weird, I didn't really think anyone would care that Analiese died... LOL.  
**J()**- Eesh, whiplash, I know what you are talking about. I've had that before... ain't pleasant....  
**Lovely()**- Three and a half?! --confused-- Anyways, thank you so so so much! I really needed your help!

This is dedicated to all of those reviewers who aided me with the Bride battle, and especially to Irish Anor and Lovely, who literally gave me the play-by-play. Thank you all!

Okay, on a closing note, Part One is now known as 'A Dark Past' and this new part, only three chapters in length, is 'A Changing Present' and after that is 'A Haunted Future' which is- well, for me to know and you to find out:-)

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Chapter 13  
Meetings Both New and Old  
  
Four hundred years... Van Helsing still had issues with getting his mind around that number. He was over four hundred years old, and still didn't look a day over his mid-thirties. (A/N- I cannot for the _life_ of me figure out how old Van Helsing is... so I guessed!) On some long days-and he had had many-he would simply sit there and think about it. Four hundred years...  
Not that he and Carl had done much with those four hundred years. On the first day, the day of their friends' funerals, they had returned to the castle. Without explanation, Gabriel had dismissed all their servants. They had removed all of the bodies from the hall and its adjoined corridor, and given fitting funerals to each. By the time all this was done, so was the day. Exhausted, they had fallen asleep in their separate rooms. The next morning, Van Helsing could not bring himself to enter the still-bloody hall once more. He sealed every possible entrance to it.  
They lived out the first few months quietly, drifting around the empty castle like ghosts. Already, rumors of what had happened had spread through the countryside, and so no one pestered them. A year later, on one of their monthly trips into town for food and news, they heard of Dracula's nightmarish return and his subsequent banishment. At that time, they also learned of Dracula's relation to Analiese: their fathers were brothers.  
Carl took to sleeping for huge portions of the day, even for days at a time. It worried Van Helsing greatly, who feared that his friend might be suffering the effects of being jerked out of his timeline and added to another one he had no business of being in. On one of the increasingly rare occasions in which Carl awoke for food, he explained his theory on it.  
"It's not that I'm dying," He had said through a stuffed mouth. "I'm _hibernating._ I have... nothing to do here. We're each here to do something, correct? Well, I'm kind of in the wrong century. My life essentially has no purpose, and so I'm sort of unwillingly forcing myself into hibernation. But don't worry; I lived through being shot in the chest, I don't think this will kill me."  
_But why haven't I begun to sleep?_ Van Helsing wondered dismally that night on one of his aimless nocturnal ramblings. He felt just as aimless as Carl claimed to be, but his body did not force him into a much needed rest. He supposed it was because he had been alive at that time, and had a purpose, but he had no idea of what it was. He was compelled constantly to be wandering, and wondered if that was how he had lived it out before. While he was out and about, he'd lose himself in thoughts and worries. His greatest was this: what if this was not how it happened? What if he was missing something and messing up the way it was supposed to happen? He had no way of knowing... In the deaths of all his friends, he had lost that link to his forgotten past.  
Carl's suggestion was this: lie low. He could go off and try and do something with four hundred years, but he ran a greater risk of realigning fates and changing timelines... at least, he _thought _that was what the Friar had said. Most of it hadn't made much sense...  
And then there were times when he figured that this was how it must've been the first time. His whole world had been brutally shattered, and it must have rocked him to the core. Maybe this purposeless, empty wandering was how he had spent his days...  
After a while day and night, week and year, blended into a muddled heap. Then he too began to sleep. He was like Carl at first, sleeping for a couple days at a time, awaking to eat, and then drifting off again. But gradually, the two dropped off entirely and would not awake for months at a time. When they did, they'd eat and talk to make sure they still could, walk about the slowly decaying castle or its overgrown grounds, and then drift off again, often in the oddest of places. The times when they awoke were erratic, and totally inexplicable. Often, it was hard to tell whether they were awake or not. Under Time's fuzzy blanket, everything grew surreal.  
Around the last twenty years, they began to awake more and more frequently, their bodies needing nourishment. They looked at the year and realized that they were born again. Their immortality was gone.  
At length, they returned to the Order. Carl almost wept with joy at the sight of his inventions. The memories of those around them were intact, and it was as if they had been there all along and had never left. They did often wonder where Cardinal Jinette was, though...  
Shocking as it was, Van Helsing was actually _happy_ to be back. He replayed all his old missions to perfection, and while it still stung horribly to be called murderer, didn't find them as hollow as he had once thought they were. He had thought that without a past, you could have no purpose. But _now _he knew what it was to have no purpose, after living those four hundred years out. While only one shining fragment of his scattered memory had been revealed, it was enough. And he did have purpose now, especially as he grew closer and closer to the Transylvania assignment. The point he had been working towards was almost there...  
As he walked through the Vatican's echoing halls, newly returned from the demise of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he was filled with a kind of sickening excitement. He was barely aware of himself as he went through the conversation he had once had with Cardinal Jinette but was now held with a different Cardinal and was led through the halls into the catacombs. The only thing that was different was as the picture of Anna flashed up on the projection screen, his heart nearly stopped. It had been so long, too long, since he had seen her... Before he had been looking at her and memorizing every detail only because he wanted to ensure he could find and protect her.   
Carl babbled on excitedly about the new inventions, dumping them into a bag he had given the Hunter as he had once done. Van Helsing made sure to tease him about never having left the abbey, and tell him he was coming. Even though he knew that Carl would be okay, and Carl himself knew it to, his reaction was still priceless.  
"Hell be damned I'm not!"  
And then, later:  
"But I'm not a field man! Van Helsing!"  
And despite his protests, that silly little Friar was following anyway.

* * *

The sailing to Romania was as he had remembered, but with a new set of dreams. Instead of being plagued by wonderings about a lost past and worries about fighting Dracula, he had dreams about Anna... Happy ones about living with her in some little villa by the sea. Carl would come and visit them, spend summer there, and teach their two children about science and math. He and Anna were showing them how to fight, and then laughing when they tackled their parents with surprising force. Then they turned on a sleeping Carl, frightening the timid Friar out of his wits as they leapt upon him with ghoulish howls...  
Van Helsing was smiling in his sleep, behavior which Carl considered highly abnormal. It was not hard to guess what - or whom - he was dreaming of, since four hundred years had given them a strange bond (A/N- GIT YER MINDS OUTTA THE GUTTER) but while he was happy to see his friend for once not plagued by nightmares, he was worried for him. Anna had taken over him, blinded him to the dangers of his work. He had almost entirely thrown off their mission to kill Dracula in the 1400's because Analiese's love had distracted him, and now with Anna and a chance of possibly saving her, Van Helsing might forgo all caution and sense. But, being a fairly shy man and not wanting to hurt or anger Van Helsing, Carl decided to trust to God and to his friend and hope he made the right choices.  
"So, what do you remember?" Carl asked as they walked through the square of the Transylvanian town.  
"Not now, Carl." Van Helsing said without glancing at his friend. He was on high alert, and pretending to be oblivious to the closely following and hostile townsfolk.  
"There must be _something_." The overly-inquisitive Friar pressed.  
"I remember fighting the Romans at Masada." Van Helsing said in an offhanded way.  
"That was in 73 AD!" Carl whispered in utter awe.  
"You asked." Was the light reply. A hurt Carl sensed that he really didn't have the man's attention here. Well, maybe trying to think back and remember wasn't the man's idea of a good conversation. Maybe it would make him happier if he talked about killing things...  
"What are we doing here? Why is it so important to kill this Dracula anyway?" He asked nervously. This wasn't his idea of a good topic, but he had a kind of morbid need to know why this Dracula personage needed to die.  
"Because he's the son of the devil." Van Helsing tipped his hat forward to cover his face, speaking in the same light, unconcerned tone.  
"I mean besides that." Carl replied nervously. That title really didn't comfort him...  
"Because if we kill him, anything bitten by him or created by him will also die." Was the next reply.  
"I mean besides that." He pushed. What was he fishing for? No matter what he asked, the answer was going to be something involving death or hell or very nasty things that he wasn't going to like...  
"Welcome to Transylvania." The white-haired crypt keeper said with a dark smile. Van Helsing turned to the crowd and dropped his bag of weapons with an air of _'Well, it starts.'_'  
"Is it always like this?" Carl, who was beginning to think that shutting up might be best, asked as he stood close behind Van Helsing.  
"Pretty much." Van Helsing replied distantly. He was waiting for something...  
_Click. Click._ The twin taps of high-heeled boots on the edge of the well. The sound, however small and insignificant it might seem to others, reverberated through Van Helsing's very being. But he remained cool and calm, his trademark, and did nothing to act on the rising feeling bubbling inside of him.  
"You. Turn around." She said in her thick accent with a tone of obvious command. Van Helsing and Carl turned, faces kept down slightly, to see Princess Anna Valerious standing on the well, hands on her hips, not lookin exceedingly pleased. "Let us see your faces." She commanded with obvious suspicion.  
"Why?" Van Helsing challenged, his face still hidden by his hat.  
"Because we don't trust strangers." Anna replied silkily, drawing out each syllable slightly. Despite Van Helsing's challenge, command was still evident in her voice.  
"Strangers don't last long in here. 5 foot 7.." The crypt keeper said, rather impersonally using a stick to take measurements of Carl. The Friar noticed this time around with a feeling of dread that he was taking measurements for a grave. Anna motioned to the crowd.  
"Gentlemen, you will now be disarmed." She said. In response, the crudely armed townsfolk gathered all around began to press closer.  
"You can try." Van Helsing warned in a dangerous voice, his hand on his revolver in a threatening gesture. He gave them a menacing glance as though to further ward them off, and it worked like a charm.  
"You refuse to obey our laws?" Anna asked lightly, raising an eyebrow. Van Helsing turned to look at her and leaned his head back a little, affording her a better view of his face. He had a handsome one, she mused, and one that cloaked his thoughts well.  
"The laws of men mean little to me." He replied. That sent off a warning signal in Anna's mind. _Do you obey the laws of the undead then?_ She asked him in her head. Well, better safe then sorry...  
"Fine." She replied softly. "Kill them." The air of command instantly returned to her voice, accompanied by a harsher edge. Carl gasped and began to look around wildly.  
"I'm here to help." Van Helsing said quickly, moving a little closer.  
"I don't need any help." Anna said with a stiff independence that reminded him of Analiese. Van Helsing breathed out slowly, his breath forming a cloud around his face.  
"Oh really?" He asked flippantly. With lightening reflex, he pulled out and armed his crossbow. Anna's eyes widened and she ducked quickly, now hearing the vampire Brides behind her. Van Helsing fired off several shots at them, causing them to scatter and then soar back up and out of range as the bolts struck the redheaded one-Aleera.  
"EVERYBODY INSIDE!" Anna shouted as she stood.  
"NOSFERATU!" The villagers screamed, dashing for their dwellings.   
Carl was crouched on the ground by the bag of weapons yelping in terror as the Brides circled the village, Van Helsing firing desperately at them. He was turned in a circle, concentrating on the one or two in front of him. He didn't see the blonde one-Marishka, swoop in from behind. Next thing he knew, he was on the ground with Anna on top of him, and she was gliding just above them, growling.  
Van Helsing and Anna locked eyes for a moment, as though just meeting for the first time. Their souls and minds brushed briefly, seizing each other up, but were wrenched apart as Aleera dove down and caught Anna in her claws. Hesitation absent, Van Helsing was on his feet and running after, jumping up to catch Anna's feet. He was wild with fear, and while he knew the battle's outcome and that she would escape mostly unscathed, he hadn't realized before how many times he had come so close to losing her. She wasn't getting away that easily.  
Snarling as she realized she could not carry both, Aleera dropped them. There was a huge thud as Anna and Van Helsing hit the ground. Van Helsing was flat on his back, stunned from the impact of the fall, and so it took him a moment to realize that Anna was straddling his shoulders. That was almost more stunning than the fall, being to close to something he had lost so utterly...  
But there was no time for romantic reminiscing, and he had to pretend to be horrified by their compromising position. He grabbed hold of her legs and rolled them over so that he was on top.   
"Stay here!" He shouted above the anarchy. With unmatched fierceness, Anna grabbed his shoulders and rolled _him _over so he was on the ground!  
"No, you stay here! They're trying to kill me!" With that, she began to run away. Cursing inwardly at her headstrong will, Van Helsing was soon on his feet too and running for his dropped crossbow. Flying above the village, the Brides took notice of this.  
"Marishka! Kill the stranger!" The dark-haired one named Verona shouted.  
"Love to!" Marishka cackled. Looking for a hiding place, Anna had been running towards the side of a house, but was quickly forced to turn and run away as the Brides chased her.  
"Run!" She screamed. Not ehr most intelligent, she admitted, but certainly a good solid idea in such a situation. Cleverly, she arced her path towards Van Helsing, leading the Brides behind her, so he could fire at them. It was an opportunity he did not miss. He hated, absolutely _hated_ having those fanged monsters so close to Anna... At that time, the crossbow chose to be out of bolts.  
"Carl! Carl it's not working!" He shouted desperately. Anna was still running...  
"Try aiming at their hearts!" Carl shouted as he tossed a new cartridge to the Hunter. In hindsight, he wished he could do something more to help his friend, but fear pinned him to his spot.  
One of the Brides dove for Van Helsing; he ducked and the Bride grabbed a cow instead. Frustrated, she flung it into a house. By then, Van Helsing had finished reloading and fired mercilessly at them. Having lost interest in the Hunter, the Brides once more focused on Anna, who was still running in desperation. Van Helsing followed her with the sight of his crossbow, but grew too nervous of hitting her as he fired. As Anna dove behind a vegetable cart and Van Helsing failed to pose a threat, Verona carried off a man and bit him, Aleera following suit. Marishka happily dove into the crowd, clawing at will. Anna watched with horror, as did Van Helsing, but he was frozen.  
"DO SOMETHING!" Anna shouted desperately, watching the massacre.   
It was her that had drawn him away from reality in the first place, and her that threw him back. Starting, Van Helsing renewed his barrage and scattered the feasting Brides. It was then that the blessed sun spread it's rays over the village like a coat of gold. Slowly, Anna stood from her hiding place and took note of the crossbow bolts happily stuck every which way into the buildings of the village. The scent of blood was carried on the whisper of a breeze as the injured tried to crawl into some safe place. Van Helsing's blood was pounding in his ears as he watched them. That had not happened before. There was been only minimal casualties. Why had he hesitated, grown too afraid for Anna to do something to save them...? Hiding his guilt, eh looked over at Anna.  
"It's the sun." She supplied, moving out of the shade. More people who had found places of temporary hiding followed her, creeping cautiously towards the light as thought they didn't even trust it.  
Water sloshed around in the well. Instantly on red alert, Anna and Van Helsing looked over at it. Silent as wraiths, they began to approach it from opposite sides, warrior muscles taut. Anna retrieved a fallen scythe slowly, and Van Helsing held his crossbow at the ready. From across the well, they made a silent agreement to attack simultaneously. After a tense moment, they lunged forward, weapons trained downward... but there was nothing there. They looked back up at each other with confusion. Both were too well trained to feel relieved. Sneakily, the jealous clouds began to cut off the life-saving sunlight once more. Carl looked skyward, his heart thudding slowly as his terror began to overtake him.  
"Van Helsing..." He whispered slowly.  
It was that moment that Aleera chose to surge impressively out of the well and take hold of Anna, her powerful wings sending Van Helsing flying backwards.  
"Do you like to fly, Anna?" Aleera grinned devilishly at her captive once they were high up.  
Furious, Van Helsing aimed his crossbow at Aleera, but there could get no clear shot. Aleera's cackling still rang through the air, setting his blood boiling. But Anna was certainly no damsel in distress as she proved when she drew a knife and dealt her captor's leg a vicious slash. Aleera flung her away, but not to her doom. The gypsy princess was caught by Verona, who began to soar up. This time, Van Helsing could get a clear shot at the vampire and used his scope to do so, firing a single, more explosive projectile at the Bride. It struck her in the leg, causing her to howl wretchedly and release Anna.  
Anna, while grateful to Van Helsing for saving her, wasn't all too pleased with being dropped onto a slippery roof, sliding down, catching hold of the edge, and then being forced to dangle there, eying the ground. Carefully, she braced herself against the edge, then flipped around and tried to catch hold of a tree. Instead, she was flung into it upside-down. Groaning and cursing, she swung there for a precarious few moments before slipping off. As she fell, a branch struck her hard in her gut. Despite this, she managed to land in a deep crouch, grimacing and letting a small cry of pain out of her lips.  
Van Helsing heard her cry of pain, but willed himself not to be distracted by it. He fired at Marishka, who fell through the roof of one of the houses. When he looked at where Anna had been before, she was gone.  
_She's okay. _He forced himself to think. _Just play this out as it happened before all the way until the end and she will live..._ Not allowing his emotional battle to show, he stalked towards the dwelling that now housed Marishka, only to be thrown backwards by the charge of the said Bride. His trusted crossbow was flung far from him. His thoughts foggy and slow, he turned to see Marishka land on a railing and with a whisper of smoke and crackle of flesh change into her human form. Seductively, she walked the rail of the house, removing bolts from her body. the wounds closed instantly, giving her time to play her little games with him.  
Van Helsing watched her cautiously. _Well I can't really kill her without a weapon now can I? _He thought cynically to himself. Then he looked down to the ground, where his crossbow lay.  
_Here's my chance to help!_ Carl thought as he rummaged through the bag. For a brief and shining instant, he considered charging up there with the silver stake in one hand and the silver cross in the other, a battle cry on his lips.... and then promptly being bitten, clawed, mangled and having other disgusting things that he could not name but could imagine very well done to him. In the end, he decided that more tossing from a safe distance was in order.  
"This should do the trick!" He said to himself, pulling out the canteen of holy water. _Well, here goes my battle cry... _"Holy water!" He shouted, running and throwing it to Van Helsing as once upon a century or two ago he had flung the short sword that later took Vladislaus Dracula's life. Just as that projectile had missed, this one did. Verona swooped down and caught it midair, flinging it into the well.  
"Stop your teasing Marishka and finish him!" Verona shouted harshly, flying away again.  
"Too bad. So sad." Marishka said in a pouty purr as she slowly sank down, her hands on her knees.   
"The church!" Carl shouted, gesturing wildly. Van Helsing turned and saw the church with a water spout out front.  
_Holy water._  
Marishka too noticed the church. Her seductive smile grew ghoulish as fangs elongated out of her mouth. Then she began to snarl, and as he ran for his crossbow, leapt off the railing at Van Helsing. The force sent him on a whiplash spin through a cart, a carriage and into a wall. His head pounding and dots dancing in front of his eyes, he slumped to the ground.  
_Right by his crossbow._  
Marishka screamed as he took his crossbow into his hands and ran for the church, shoving everything else out of his mind except for two very opposite things: death and survival.  
"Here she comes!" Carl cried, pointing to the screaming Bride as she swooped towards Van Helsing.  
Van Helsing felt like shouting at the Friar for not telling him _where _she was coming from, but didn't as he thrust the tip of his crossbow into the holy water, then whirled around. Marishka was bare feet from him as he aimed and then, with a twinge of remorse for the once beautiful woman, pulled the trigger.  
Bolts dripping in holy water ripped through her white bat-like body, causing her to lose control and crash into a steeple, pinned there by the sharp tips clawing eagerly at her skin. She screamed and writhed, using every ounce of power in her body to fight the fate she did not want. Many common threads bind the peoples of this world, some stronger than others. One of the strongest is this: none of us want to die. And no one understood that better than Gabriel Van Helsing as he watched her turn to ash and dust before his eyes, a faded memory blown easily away by the Transylvanian breeze. Because he himself had not wanted to die, he had been forced to take the life of another.  
Verona and Aleera burst from the house they had detained Anna in, wailing their fallen sister's name. They would remember what others would forget. In that, we are all immortal. Making the sign of the cross, Van Helsing tumbled onto the steps of the church, exhausted in every way possible.  
Carl, after noticing that somehow the damn cow that Verona had attacked was alive and well, joined his comrade on the steps. The crowd followed him, shouting angrily.  
"He killed her!"  
"He killed Marishka!"  
"He killed a Bride!"  
Shouting obscenities and waving their makeshift weapons, they closed in on a resigned Van Helsing, too used to such scenes of anger, and a highly befuddled Friar.  
"But isn't that a good thing?" He squeaked, squinting.  
"Vampires only kill what they need to survive. One or two people a month. Now, they will kill for revenge." The crypt keeper said sinisterly. At this, a new uproar like a fresh wave of blood from a wound rose and pounded on Van Helsing. He was used to being called a murderer, but the people of Transylvania were cutting open his heart and pouring salt and lemon over the cuts with abandon.  
"Are you always this popular?" Carl asked incredulously.  
"Pretty much." Van Helsing said in a dry voice.  
"So what name, my good sir, do I carve on your gravestone?" asked the snowy haired crypt keeper, as white as the dead he took care of and with a grin that would probably scare most of them.  
"His name is Van Helsing." Anna said as she parted the crowd with ease and stood before him. Shifting and whispering, the crowd reacted to this name with a mixture of reverence and fear. "Your reputation precedes you." In way of response, Van Helsing rose and moved close to her. The part of his mind that had already lived this before realized something: even then, he had felt the desire to protect her.  
"Next time, stay close. You're no good to me dead." He admonished quietly. The urge struck him to reach up and run his hand along the smoothly defined curve of her face, then run it through her chocolate hair, just so he could absorb the contrast: smooth and pale, tangled and dark.  
"Well, I'll say this to you. You've got courage." She smiled softly, saying this just to him. Now she turned to the crowd and announced in her strong, decisive tone: "He's the first one to kill a vampire in over a hundred years." Now her gaze fell back on him, her eyes sending trembling warmth through him. "I'd say that's earned him a drink."  
The first time he had lived this, Van Helsing had been resigned to this, just another mission. There had been no fire, not until much later, when he felt that connection to Dracula and to Anna, when he realized that this was not just some other monster to be killed but a person, and someone he knew apparently, and when he saw that this was not just some other... _thing_ to be protected, but a fierce and passionate woman who melted the ice that normally protected his heart and made him feel again. Now, that fire was still burning bright and he was thinking to himself _It's good to be back..._

* * *

A/N Personally, I thought that chapter was crap... it just wasn't willing to be written, but I forced it to anyways. So, loved it, hated it, tell me, but please be polite. The next chapter is not something that happened in the movie but something I came up with.... and Carl gets to be _intelligent_ in it!! So review! 


	15. Chapter 14: How Many Deaths?

A/N-- Hey all! This chapter minus the beginning never happened in the movie, it is merely something on my part to further my plot and give Carl a chance to vent. That's right... he and Van Helsing have it out verbally in this chapter.  
  
**Irish Anor**: Your reviews crack me up... and yes, it would be quite comical if Gabriel were sitting there doing nothing but trying to wake up Carl.... and I get the impression that Carl would be hard to wake up!!  
**Dare()**- I'm glad you like my story.... I hope you enjoy the way I continue it as much as you have enjoyed it up to this point!  
**hjhjhjh()**- Thanks for the info on Hugh Jackman's age... I was pretty much right.  
**Anthem82()**- Don't thank me for that, thank Irish Anor and Lovely! They were my resources! Otherwise, I'm glad you liked my chapter!  
**Lovely()**- Yea, that whole chapter just felt awkward... Cardinal Jinette's death won't play much of a role at all until Part Three, and you'll see how knowledge of certain events will affect outcomes in the next chapter... And thank you so much for your help with the last chapter!  
**Allora**- I'm glad you liked my take on Van Helsing's feelings, and you are the only one who commented on him slipping up! I just thought that was how he should take it. I'd throw Gabriel at you in this chapter.... but Irish Anor seems to be permanently glued to him. And Carl is kinda yelling at everyone right now. Maybe I could give you Dracula, but he's been a bit edgy and he might bite you if I threw him at you. Sorry!

* * *

Chapter 14:  
How Many Deaths...?  
  
He watched her fall, her back in a delicate curve, and caught her. In the darkness of the Valerious manor, Van Helsing could not help but be reminded of when Analiese had died. He had caught her in much the same way, looked down into her face with much the same disbelief. It was a chilling resemblance as he cradled Anna's limp body. But Van Helsing forced himself not to be afraid of the resemblance, shaking his head as he carried her to her room. She was NOT dead, she was just knocked out by the spray he had used on her. Carl had made it for use on the monsters he fought so that he might actually bring one home _alive_ for once, but sometimes humans were just so much more annoying than the monsters and more deserving of the spray.  
While carrying Anna to her room, or what he hoped was her room, he was mentally berating himself. Where had this strange, jittery mood come from? He had been feeling something bordering on excitement coming to Transylvania, a kind of antsy anticipation, but now that he was here he was jumpy and overprotective. He had even choked while fighting the Brides out of fear and nervousness for Anna. Innocents had lost their _lives _because of those few moments of hesitation. That was not how it had happened before.  
With a rough shake of his head, he gently lay Anna on the bed, wanting so desperately to cover her up and make her warm and comfortable but holding himself back. She would likely pitch a fit at him if he did. Instead he contented himself with watching her as she moaned softly in her induced sleep, shuffling her shoulders a little to nestle herself deeper in the covers. Her head turned to the side, causing some of her thick hair to cover her face as her breathing fell into the easy rhythm of sleep.  
It was strange. She was just like any other human being. She made the same noises we all do in our sleep, wriggled around in search of a comfortable spot on the bed just as the rest of us do; even frowned a little at whatever worry was plaguing her like all the stressed out members of our species do. Why then? Why did she hold such a great power over Gabriel Van Helsing? He himself could not explain it as he hesitated closing the door on her, allowing his eyes to linger on her soft, curved form before shutting away the angelic sight.  
Carl. He'd have to go talk to Carl about this. Looking sharply from left to right as though to ensure any unwanted shadows were not clinging to Anna's door, he set off for the tower.

* * *

"Carl?" Van Helsing called as he opened the door to the tower room where Carl would be researching. The neglected candles were burning low and it was a stormy night, making it hard to see.  
"Oh, there you are Van Helsing." Carl said in a monotone. After his eyes adjusted to the gloom, Van Helsing could see the redhead bent over a book.   
Van Helsing frowned at the inflection, or lack thereof, in the Friar's voice; there was no enthusiasm in it. Carl did everything in his life with a huge amount of enthusiasm. He ate, slept, walked, breathed, worked, talked, laughed and cried with enthusiasm. He was just an enthusiastic person, which was partly why he made such a good companion for the introvert Monster Hunter. Instinctively, Van Helsing knew something was wrong.  
"Something wrong Carl?" He asked slowly, perching himself on the desk nearby his friend.  
"Is there?" He sighed, looking up at Van Helsing. He looked very tired.  
"With me...?" Van Helsing looked away. "It's Anna... This time around I'm so... fiercely overprotective of her. At least, I feel like that. I think so. I don't know..."  
"Well, it sounds like you're in love." Carl said in the same tone as before. "Perfectly normal, you know."  
"Well what's wrong with you then?" Van Helsing challenged. "If you're too tired to work you don't have to. We already know how to kill Dracula."  
"Yes I know, but it's just... easier if I have something to do. Keeps my mind off my worries..." Carl mumbled, going back to his reading.  
"What are you worried about?" He asked quietly. He had never known Carl to have all that many worries, or at least if he did he kept them damn well hidden.  
"You, of course!" Carl cried suddenly, jumping to his feet. "I saw what happened at the square! I saw you get distracted trying to protect Anna and let those people get attacked by Marishka! Look, I may have been too much of a coward to do anything about it so maybe I shouldn't be railing on you, but I know that's not how it happened last time! And it makes me really worried that you might let Anna distract you and let something like that happen again!" Van Helsing was too taken aback by Carl's vehemence to respond, giving the little man a chance to rant further. "I was worried at the onset of this mission, because I SAW how Anna's memory affected you when we were sent to kill Dracula the first time. You completely let the whole thing backfire on you, and I hate to sound cold but usually you don't let your emotions fiddle with your work!  
"I thought that you would learn a lesson after that mission, that you'd see you couldn't let Anna's memories get in the way! I thought that maybe the fact that _every single one of your friends died because you loved her so much_ might teach you something! And now I'm just really afraid that you are going to let something happen just so she can be safe!" He shouted.  
"Are you saying she's not worth the sacrifice?" Van Helsing shouted back, leaping to his feet. "Are you saying that I shouldn't be defending her no matter the costs? You say this is impairing my work, but remember Carl, I was _charged with her protection! This **is **part of my mission!_"  
"_But you need to stop and consider how much she is worth Gabriel! Is she worth the world? Will you slip up and let Dracula unleash his monstrous brood on the world just so she can be safe?_"Almost instantly after this impressive outburst, Carl was calm again. He watched Van Helsing with sad eyes, then shook his head.  
"How could I ever say that she wasn't worth the sacrifice? I know how much she means to you Van Helsing. I didn't mean to belittle those feelings. I just want you to be mindful of 'the costs.' You should defend her yes, this is part of your mission yes, but be careful of the words 'no matter the costs,' because if you keep using that phrase sooner or later the costs will touch you." Carl sighed again. "All I really want to say is this: how many will die for her? And how will she react if she finds out you put at stake the lives of those people she leads and defends for her protection?"  
There were a few minutes of silence as Carl returned to his research and Van Helsing lingered at his side, thinking. He needed to be told those things, he realized. He needed someone to shout in his face every now and then. While he should feel hurt and cross, he was grateful to Carl for being angry with him. At length, he spoke.  
"I'm sorry Carl." He whispered.  
"Don't be. Your pouting face is one of the most horrifying things in existence. I don't know what your mother did with you as a child when you did that..." Carl turned back to Van Helsing, grinning. "Now get going. Anna will be awake shortly and you should be ready to defend her against Velkan."  
Van Helsing smiled and left the tower. He would defend Anna, but would keep Carl's warning in mind. He knew all too well how costly recklessness could be. This time, he refused to allow Anna to be one of the costs.

* * *

A/N-- Okie dokie, I hope you enjoyed that chapter... I thought that Carl deserved a chance to yell at someone. I just went to Borders Bookstore and snuck some papers and a pencil in so I could copy down the details of the final battle, so that chapter should be up soon. Thankee for reading, and all reviewers get bags of M&M's next chapter! 


	16. Chapter 15: A Twist of Fate

A/N-- You must forgive any inaccuracies in this chapter. I took a couple pieces of paper and a pencil into the bookstore, found the movie novelization and copied down as much as I could. And I was hurrying and missing parts, so I dunno how accurate all of this is... As promised, all reviewers get a bag of M&M's!  
  
**Irish Anor**: I'm glad you liked that little humor! I thought we needed the comic relief... And I think that it just wouldn't be very dramatic if Van Helsing went around giving monsters puppy dog eyes and going 'Please die, just for me...' Originally, I was gonna redo the whole movie with Van Helsing and Carl knowing what was going on, but I balked in the end and decided not to mess with it. --bites Irish Anor's hand--  
**Doris()**- I'm glad you found my take on the movie refreshing... but thank Irish Anor and Lovely() for the accuracy! they noticed it, not me! I'm really happy you love this story... sadly, it had around five chapters to go and it ends. Maybe even less. Don't hesitate to post some of your work. It takes courage to do it the first time, but once you get your first good review you won't be able to stop!  
**The Wishmasters**- Heh, I absolutely love getting reviews once people have read Carl's near-death scene... I've gotten so many death threats.... And I actually am in the process of writing a Carl/Gabriel slash, but I'm not really sure if I wanna post it or not.  
**HyperCaz**- You want Anna to live...? okay, but you asked for it....  
**Dare()**- I'm glad you like the humor! I've discovered that I seem to enjoy giving Carl bizarre internal monologues... There's another at the beginning of this chapter. And I'm gonna start doing the spacing thing with this chapter.  
**Anthem82()**- I'm glad you liked Carl's outburst. I thought he needed it.  
**Allora**- OMG, Everyone loves that whole pouty face thing!!! I just came up with it off the top of my head.... And don't worry, Dracula is mine... and I intend for it to stay that way!!!! LOL, I actually didn't do a very good job of copying, as this chapter will show.  
**HealerAriel**- NO! CARL MINE! They've already taken Gabriel! LOL.  
  
In closing, there is a twist at the end of this chapter... as indicated by the title.

* * *

Chapter 15:  
A Twist of Fate  
  
"Castle Dracula..." Anna whispered in awe. The torchlight shone in her eyes, her mouth slightly agape with wonder. They had done it.... for centuries, long, bloody centuries, her family had been unable to find this place... and now she stood there...  
  
Van Helsing glanced briefly at Anna, a little distracted by the werewolf venom pumping through his veins. The look on her face was priceless; she was standing on the brink of discovery, fulfilling a desire that had been bred into her. Being able to see her at the culmination of not just her life's work but her father's life's work a thousand times back to 1462 was a true gift.  
  
Carl, however, was failing to see the magic of this moment. As he stepped through the ice obelisk and saw the horrific, icy beauty of Castle Dracula, he decided that hiding in some dark corner might be just the teeniest bit more magical. Running desperately for the entrance he had come from, he realized it wasn't the same fear that had gripped him once. It was a different kind. It was like he was in mortal peril... But smacking into the solid ice helped greatly to clear his thoughts; he wasn't in peril. His mind was in peril of becoming lost to insanity, he decided as he followed Anna and Van Helsing. Why the hell was he still following that man again?  
  
The things we'll do for friends.  
  
"Do we have a _plan_? It doesn't have to be Wellington's at Waterloo but some sort of a plan would be nice." Carl piped up as he trotted along beside his friends.  
  
"We're going to go in there and stop Dracula." Van Helsing said calmly.  
  
"And kill anything that gets in our way." Anna continued with her usual determination. Carl was mentally bashing his head against a brick wall. But then again, what sort of answer could he expect from two monster hunters? Something that involved death. Someday, he was going to start his own organization of sensible Friars that went out and saved the world... _logically and with a plan that did not involve mass murder._ Someday...  
  
"Well you let me know how that goes..." He replied, beginning to walk away.   
  
As he caught sight of the gates, his heart began to race frantically, and suddenly that plan about an organization of logical-world-saving-Friars didn't seem like such a bad idea. But all his hopes were yanked from him as Van Helsing took hold not only of his shoulder but of Anna's. Mustering all his strength, he leapt straight over the frozen gates and into the entrance hall. Promptly, he fell to his knees. Ice stung his lungs as he took ragged gulps of cold air. The energy drain, while expected, still didn't fail to leave him dizzy with its force.  
  
For a time, he had considered changing the way things happened. He did after all have the advantage of knowing every single thing that was about to happen before it happened. Why not turn that to his advantage? But then he considered the implications. He was messing with time. He in disturbing its threads, he could send ripples through it that backfired and came back to haunt him. Why take that risk? There was only one thing he wanted to change after all... and it was standing right behind him, hand lightly resting on his shoulder.  
  
"Well as grateful as I am to be out of the cold, that doesn't seem like a good thing." Carl whimpered, looking at Van Helsing. Even knowing that there was a cure, he still didn't like him becoming a werewolf. Anna, however, seemed occupied with the hundreds of thousands of green eggs, all connected to electric wires, coating the icy walls of the fortress.  
  
"Oh my god, if he brings all these to life...." The thought didn't need to be finished.'  
  
It was then they heard a howl of agony. Running over to a grate in the wall, the trio could see Frankenstein. He was at the bottom of the room into which they peeked, held prisoner by a massive block of ice. At a command from Dracula, thick chains began to hoist him upwards, as if on some grand ascent. But they all knew, this was no heavenly ascent... it was a horrifying one.  
  
"The cure." The so-called monster gasped. Van Helsing, in the middle of trying to pry open the thick grate, paused.  
  
"What?"  
  
"There is a cure. Dracula has it here. Go. Find it. Save yourself!" The words rose in a shriek as he neared his destination.  
  
"Igor do this, Igor do that. Igor-" As the three companions whirled to see Dracula's servant, Igor, hauling huge, thick cables across the room, the speaker froze and dropped his load. "What? How is it possible..?" He began to run for the exit, but a now thoroughly agitated Van Helsing detached one of his Tojo blades and sent it flying into Igor's sleeve. The ensuing force trapped the humpbacked man.  
  
"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you." Van Helsing snarled, clutching Igor's throat.  
  
"I uh, well, I-" Igor trailed off, obviously not able to think of a valid reason to not die. (A/N-- Here is where I go impromptu on yall...) Just as Van Helsing reached inside his coat, not doubt for something Igor would _not_ like, he thought of something. "I know where the cure is!"  
  
"You what?" Anna asked, she and Carl now standing very close to the two.  
  
"But why would Dracula have the cure for werewolfism?" Carl asked, befuddled.  
  
"Because that's the one thing that can kill him." Van Helsing said at first slowly, and then more fast.  
  
"Exactly! That's what the moving picture meant!" Carl said excitedly.  
  
"But Dracula's been using werewolves to do his bidding for centuries." Anna's brow furrowed critically.  
  
"And that's why he needs the antidote! Should one of his servants ever break the thrall, he'd need it to turn them human again!" Carl explained.  
  
"Alright Carl, now we have a plan." Van Helsing turned to Igor. "You're going to lead them to the antidote."  
  
"No I'm not." Igor responded. A low growl rose in Van Helsing's throat and his eyes flashed yellow. "Yes I am." After he removed the Tojo blade, he took something else off of Igor's person: a pair of circular wire cutters. He handed them to Anna.  
  
"If for one moment you believe he may be steering you wrong..." He clicked the shears together. "Cut off a finger."  
  
"Oh I'll cut off something." Anna hissed as she took the shears. Needless to say, all the men in the room were starting to feel a teensy bit uncomfortable. "Well what about you?" She turned to Van Helsing.  
  
"At midnight, I'll turn into a werewolf and kill Dracula. before the last stroke, I want you to give me the antidote. It should cure me." He said after taking a deep breath. He hated having to use this plan again, but now that he knew the possible consequences, perhaps he would have more self control.  
  
"And what if it doesn't work?" Anna fired back. Van Helsing produced the silver stake and activated it.  
  
"Then use this." He handed it to Carl. The Friar's face was white as he accepted it.  
  
"I couldn't." He said in a shaky voice. _I don't haev your strength. I couldn't kill my best friend..._ His pleading blue eyes said.  
  
"You must." Van Helsing said urgently. _Find the courage to look for that strength. I know you possess it.... _His eyes answered.  
  
"Godspeed, my friend." Carl whispered, roughly pushing Igor ahead of him as he started off.  
  
"Godspeed." Van Helsing replied. His gaze now fell on Anna, the woman he was going to alter time for. "Be careful. I don't want you getting killed."  
  
"You still don't understand." Anna said with a wild shake of her head. Her eyes had a look of utter desperation in them. "It doesn't _matter_ what happens to me. We must save my family." She began to run away, but Van Helsing caught her and pulled her close. Her heart did a little flip at this gesture. She had hoped he would...   
  
What was it with these Valerious women and running away to hide behind Dracula, in love or in war, to see if he loved them enough to pursue or not? Van Helsing thought as he pulled her close. If he had any true command over the flow of time, this would be the moment he would freeze. Her cheeks were rosy with cold, and light nested in her eyes, accentuating that indomitable fire. The air around them was frigid, but that only gave them more reason to move close. And it allowed him to see her breath leaving her lips in small puffs. It allowed him to see that she was alive.  
  
He swore it. Carl's warning be damned, he swore that no matter the costs, this would not be the last time he saw her alive..  
  
"If you're late, run like Hell." She started to turn again, but he pulled her back. her breathing changed. No longer was she panting from fear and exertion, but from anticipation. "Don't be late." He whispered.  
  
Anna hesitated for a few moments, taking sharp breaths. When she was younger and her mission to destroy Dracula was being ingrained in her, she taught herself not to show fear and to live without love in the thankless world of revenge. Now she was breaking both of those resolves. And hell, it felt good! Dracula be damned, she was out from under his thrall. He had no power over her life and, looking into Van Helsing's eyes, she knew he was as good as dead. Van Helsing would kill him... for her? She didn't know or care. But whoever it was being done for, it would set her free. And she wanted to thank him...  
  
When they kissed she felt _free_ for the first time ever. He kissed her hard and then soft and then hard again. The touch struck her deep and torturously, sending pangs of longing that were sickeningly sweet through her body. This was a kiss born of the rawest elements: fear, desperation, hope and maybe even love. It was fierce and hard as desperate fear, yet soft and sweet as hopeful love. Her heart fluttered as their lips parted and rejoined urgently, their hands lost in each other's hair. As Anna could feel the kiss ending, she found herself fearing for Van Helsing. This was no longer just about her, and her family's salvation. It was about him too...  
  
They were forced to pull back. Anna tried to kiss Gabriel again, but thought better of it. (A/N-- Seriously. Watch the clip on vanhelsing.net and look really closely. She does!!!) He hadn't noticed that the first time, but now he was drinking in every little nuance. Just in case...  
  
"Now go... go." He whispered desperately, releasing her. Knowing that if she didn't leave now she might never let go, she bolted away without hesitation. Van Helsing watched her go. _I will see you again..._  
(A/N-- By a show of hands, who here can tell I had too much fun rewriting the kiss?)

* * *

He was there. It hit him as suddenly as Anna's kiss had. He was back there, in this timeless war against Dracula. Midnight was nearing, he could tell by the fire in his veins. And he was in the library about to kill Vladislaus Dracula again. He had found Castle Dracula, yes, he had kissed Anna, yes, he had tried to save Frankenstein, yes, but none of that really mattered in hindsight. This was what the night was about. This was the true test.  
  
"You are too late, my friend! My children live!" Dracula howled with glee, his obsidian eyes shining triumphantly in the sparks' light. He was practically dancing with joy, and for a moment Van Helsing was wondering if it was right to be hating him. Shouldn't he be rejoicing? Why was he disgusted with his best friend for being happy about the birth of his children...? But he forced the thoughts to go away. He had to start concentrating on two things alone: on killing Dracula and on not killing Anna. He had no time for thoughts of any other kind.  
  
"And the only way to kill them is by killing you." Van Helsing replied. With impeccable timing, the clock began to toll midnight. "One." He growled thickly as he fell to his knees.   
  
It felt as though little insects were crawling all over the underside of his skin, nibbling at every bit of his flesh. He had to get them out of there. They hurt so horribly... He began to tear at his clothes and then his flesh. Those crawling, biting insects spread all over him, forming a coat of thick black hair. Some exploded, forming gigantic, corded muscles. Now they were in his head, gnawing at his brain... he was forgetting everything, everything. Who he was, who those people he had journeyed with were, where he was, how he came to be there, and what he was. _No! I cannot lose all that!_ He shrieked mentally. And so he clung onto a single word:  
  
Anna.  
  
In his moments of fading, he managed to convince himself that that was all that mattered. Anna. Anna Anna Anna Anna Anna. That word made up who he was... He concentrated solely on it as he howled. In his own wolfish way, he was honoring who he was fighting for, howling her name: _Anna!_  
  
"No... this... this is not right... This cannot be!" Dracula howled in pure rage. He had hoped that after knowing how it would end Van Helsing would choose to avoid becoming a werewolf, but there he was in all his lunar glory. He began to back away slowly as the werewolf approached. "We are both part of the same grand game, Gabriel. We need not face each other from opposite sides..." He said quickly as he backed into a table. His hand found a knife there. As Van Helsing leapt, he plunged the knife downward. It struck the vampire hunter cum wolf-man in the upper arm, just as it had done all those centuries ago... (A/N-- I know, that didn't happen in the movie...)  
  
A startled Gabriel jerked back with a yelp of pain. He had not done that before... A vague part of him muttered sleepily, but the savage werewolf took over/ This prey was clever. But who cared. He'd rip its clever brain to pieces. He did not lunge again this time, but began to back slowly away with a whimper. As Dracula leapt at him again, monstrous fangs bared, he ducked and came swiftly around behind him. With a roar of triumph, he brought his claws down on Dracula's back.  
  
Dracula screamed in pain, transforming and rocketing for the skylight. Anticipating this, the wolf-man bounded up the wall alongside him and then leapt on top of him in a frenzy. Both were thrown back to the ground, sending lab equipment flying in a glorious spurt of red and gold sparks. The werewolf howled with sheer glee. Chaos, glorious chaos, as both were blinded. But he didn't allow himself to become lost in the ecstasy of the moment; he held Dracula pinned by his throat, to the ground. Now Gabriel began to take back over slightly. _Anna_ _Anna Anna Anna_. His mind chanted, reminding him of who he was _not_ supposed to kill.  
  
"Don't you understand? We were friends! Brothers! Partners!" Dracula gasped.  
  
_You think I don't know? _Van Helsing screamed inside.  
  
It was at that moment that thick thunderclouds stormed across the sky and kidnapped the moon's light, leaving a sweaty, exhausted and barely clothed (A/N--Swoon) human Van Helsing pinning Dracula. The vampiric Count smiled his most wicked and moved one leg in between them, planting a powerful kick on Van Helsing's stomach that sent him flying up into one of the catwalks and then slammed him into the ground. Still smirking and dusting off his clothes, Dracula approached.  
  
"Did I mention that it was you who murdered me?" He asked sweetly.  
  
"You might've once or twice." Van Helsing coughed up blood as he stood.  
  
"All I ever wanted was to live with the woman I loved, Gabriel. I wanted life and you took it away. Along with my ring." He raised one hand to show that its ring finger had been cut off. Van Helsing glanced momentarily at his own hand and at the token he bore there. "I'd like to have both back. But first... Why? Why twice, Gabriel?" He asked with a sudden, soft sadness.  
  
"Well let's just say that you get so God damn annoying sometimes." Gabriel growled as the moon began to reappear. But Dracula was faster in his transformation.  
  
"Now I will give you your life and memory back!" He howled as he lunged at Van Helsing, wings spread. He slammed into the half-transformed werewolf, crushing him against one of the metal staircases leading to the catwalks the Dwergi used. But van Helsing flipped him around and, fangs bared, clamped down on the side of Dracula's neck in a macabre tribute to the way many of his victims had died. As the creature that was once his best friend began to writhe and scream in agony, he decided he had had enough. He jerked back suddenly, ripping his throat from his body.  
  
Instantly, the noises ceased. Black blood gurgled across his form as eh mouthed wordlessly, reaching out for Van Helsing. To kill him? In supplication? To forgive him? He did not know. But as they had been lost before, they were lost now. He slithered away in a puff of ash and dust. He was no more substantial than his unspoken words.  
  
Van Helsing's chest heaved mightily with each breath as he turned to the huge bay window and the divan in front of it. With vampire blood seasoning his tongue, he was beginning to slip further and further from the shores of sanity, but as he looked at the red divan, something flashed in his head. Something bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad feeling. Bad memory. But foggy. What was it he had been fighting for...?  
  
And then he scented her in the room. He whirled and she was already running for him, dark curls flying about her face and the antidote held above her head. His fearless gypsy. What was her name...?  
  
_Anna!_  
  
She flew on top of him as he growled and, as though burned, jerked away. The sudden movement made her fly onto the divan and land there, short of breath. With a cry, she leapt back up and plunged the syringe into his upper chest, then stumbled and fell back down. Her hand was on her sword as she watched with fear and hope in her eyes.  
  
Slowly, he stumbled away. With a strange kind of fascination, he watched the thick red liquid dripping into him. It brought a smooth, creamy feeling, like a buttermilk bath, and soothed away all the itches and nips of the little crawling insects. his mind was returning and his eyes met hers with recognition; he bared his fangs in a werewolf's form of a smile as ecstatic happiness flooded him uncontrollably.  
  
He had done it. Anna was alive! The cure was pumping through him and Dracula was dead. he had fought Time and Fate themselves and won! With a triumphant howl he raised his arms above his head. Anna watched with fear, unsure if he was attacking or not, and with a cry slipped off the divan and backed into the wall. Van Helsing was too elated to notice.  
  
"Van Helsing!" Carl's voice called. From behind, it looked like he was making ready to attack the prone gypsy princess... Carl cursed himself for what he had to do. Now Van Helsing would never be able to laugh at his organization of logical-world-saving-Friars, and it would be because of his actions...  
  
In a moment of wild glee, Van Helsing whirled. His arms were flung out wide to embrace his friend, even though he was still mostly in werewolf form. He did not know that Carl was almost directly behind him.  
  
There was a sickening snap as his hand connected with the sprinting Friar's face and turned it sharply to one side. Van Helsing froze as he watched the slight man fall like a young tree uprooted in a storm. Just as his body slowly turned from that of a wolf's back into a human's, a feeling of molten horror roiled in his gut. He fell to his knees beside the still man and spoke in his newly regained voice.  
  
"Carl... I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hit you. Are you hurt?" He asked hoarsely, feebly. Anna stood up cautiously behind him, walking to stand at his side. As waves of horror overcame her, she watched him touch Carl's pale face and turn his head slowly from side to side, feeling its limpness, and she saw the look of childish wonder and confusion on his face. "Oh no... God no... Carl... I didn't mean to... Carl... _**Carl**_!" He shouted in anguish as he staggered away. Her heart breaking, Anna stood and followed Van Helsing. He had backed himself into a corner of the room and was clutching his head, murmuring to himself. "No, no, he's not dead, he's not!"  
  
"Van Helsing-"  
  
"We can save him, there's a way! He was neurotic, he must've taken notes while he was making the potion that took us back. We can go back- change this all..." He half shouted.  
  
"Love-" She tried to say, the name coming unbidden to her lips.  
  
"We can, we can! He'd find a way if it-"  
  
Suddenly, her lips were on his in a desperate kiss. He held her close; soon she could taste the salt of tears on ehr tongue, and she pulled back. Van Helsing was crying, and so hard that it hurt just to watch. It didn't seem right that he was crying. He was a Monster Hunter, a man who was on the most intimate of terms with death. It seemed so out of place that he, the Left Hand of God, was now sobbing on the shoulder of a gypsy princess who was the last of her line. He had so much power, but at that moment he seemed so frail and weak.  
  
She held him for a long while, whispering to him, stroking his hair, running her hands along the muscles in his arms in a vain attempt to ease their tension. And, gradually, he began to tell her everything. How it had originally been she that had died, and the grief that had consumed him. How Dracula had returned to the past and he and Carl had followed. He'd fallen in love with her ancestor and killed Dracula for her love, only to watch the woman die. He had lived through four hundred years just to see her again, and compromised his mission to destroy Dracula once more for her sake. And now... Carl, his right hand man, had died instead of her.  
  
"He was willing to risk everything for me, Anna. He went with me back in time because he was afraid I was losing my will to live. He wasn't even sure if it was safe for him to do so, and he felt so out of place, but he never once questioned his decision. He almost died even to help me kill Dracula." Van Helsing whispered, his tears now gone. "He was there, all the while. My faithful one... I may be the Left Hand of God, but who am I to strike down my own right hand?" Anna leaned her head against his, and they shared a silent moment as emotions overcame them both. At last, she spoke.  
  
"Perhaps... we should not try to save him." She mused. "Someone was fated to die this night, so that somewhere else new life could begin. You tried to change that balance by saving me... and so someone else had to die." Her voice shook slightly. "And it was Carl who paid the price. Unhappy as that is, there is new life somewhere in the world. And we must meet it, no try to change the circumstances that brought it. "You tempted fate once to save me. To do it again could prove to have far worse effects than we can begin to grasp." Van Helsing was silent, numb. "Let us go from this place of death." She whispered against his hair before standing and taking his hands in her own. She pulled him to his feet. With a nod, Van Helsing gathered Carl's body in his arms and they left that hollow place.

* * *

When they reached the Valerious manor, they immediately got horses. They needed to tell the townspeople of Dracula's defeat. As they were leaving the manor at a walk, Anna realized something.  
  
"Carl." She said suddenly. Van Helsing raised his head slightly; his face was barely visible from beneath the brim of his hat. They had put Carl in the tower library and lit candles all around him. The books, things that had been his friends for so long, would stand vigil over him while they could not. "What shall we do with him?" She asked hesitantly. She hated having to speak of it this way, but something did need to be done and she was unsure of their customs. Van Helsing lowered his gaze again.  
  
"We'll take him to the Vatican. They'll know what to do, what he would've wanted." He said in a hoarse and tortured voice.  
  
"Shall we just ride on then?" Anna's question was soft as pale sky above.  
  
"Let me show you the sea." He said after a quiet moment.  
  
He led her there, to that cliff. Fate kept pulling him back to that place, he realized. While he was thinking about why that beautiful place was so entwined with death, Anna was caught up in the beauty of the sea below her.  
  
"Oh!" She cried, running to the edge of the cliff. The cries of the gulls filled her ears and the breeze left the taste and scent of salt all over her. The waves on the shore far below pounded in time with her heart and filled up her soul... she turned to Van Helsing, wanting him to share in the beautiful moment, but saw the look on his face.  
  
"This place..." He said with a hollow listlessness. "So timeless... We burned you here. And then we burned Analiese here.... We could take Carl here..." He shook his head. "No. He deserves to be at the Vatican, amongst his inventions and his books. Besides," He laughed shortly. "He was sort of our resident Friar. If we were to perform the rites here, there'd be no one to read over him. And maybe that's the way it should be because... no words could do him justice." He trailed off. The wind grew much stronger as Anna approached, stirring up the ashes of old memories. This beautiful, sad place felt wrong without Carl. Every other time he'd come here, Carl had been there. It was broken without him...  
  
"Thank you." Anna whispered to him. She could've gone on about all the things she had to thank him for, but decided to leave it at those two words. He smiled weakly at her, then they went back to the horses.

* * *

Van Helsing remembered almost nothing of the trip to the small village. He didn't need his eyes to guide his horse, he simply followed Anna's presence. Although in reality he had only known her for a very short time, she was such a deep part of him, and he instinctively knew where she was going. He just let his soul follow her.  
  
He found his soul calling out for a missing part of it. The friendly, warm presence that had been Carl, so subtle in life as not to be noticed, was now gone, and its absence was painful. His soul's cries echoed out hopelessly over the Transylvanian landscape, calling for something that would never come home, and he lost himself in them as they journeyed.  
  
The villagers seemed to have known they would come, because most of them were waiting outside. Van Helsing pulled himself out of his reverie and moved his horse up beside Anna's, steeling himself for the usual response. The townsfolk were unusually quiet, however, as they rode through their mist. Their silence was almost worse than accusations. _Say it, say it already. Call me a murderer and be done with it._  
  
"Is Dracula dead?" asked one terse farmer, a grizzled man with scars all across him.  
  
"The terror that was known as Count Vladislaus Dracula is no more." Anna confirmed loudly. A cheer rose up from the people. "The Valerious line has been saved, and so have the people of Transylvania! And of the world!" She cried along with them. And then, as the calls and celebration ebbed, she turned to Van Helsing. "And it would not have been possible without Mr. Van Helsing." She said softly, reaching out to brush ehr fingers across his cheek.  
  
"What's this, what's this I hear?" Called a voice from within a nearby house. The crowd turned to see a middle-aged woman and her teenage daughter emerging.  
  
"Mama, you should not be out of bed so soon after labor!" The daughter chided.  
  
"I don't care!" The woman puffed. "I heard shouts of joy! What has come to pass as I gave birth to my son?" Now they could see that the daughter held a tiny, struggling bundle.  
  
"Dracula has been vanquished!" Crowed the swaying mass of people.  
  
"On the day of my son's birth!" The woman almost wept with joy. "Who did the deed?"  
  
"It was Van Helsing." Anna spoke, moving her horse out of the way to reveal the tall, dark man. The woman approached shyly, the baby in her arms.  
  
"You killed Dracula? Truly?" She asked. Van Helsing nodded. "Thank you sir! And thank God that this child has lived to see a brighter sunrise!" Her voice turned shy and quiet again. "Might we name him for the man who brought that brilliant dawn?" She asked, holding up the baby.  
  
"No..." Van Helsing whispered as he dismounted, cradling the child. Anna stood beside him and leaned her head against his shoulder to better see his face. "Name him for a man far braver than I." One of his tears fell on ehr upturned face. So many emotions were written in his eyes: pain, hope, love, despair, darkness, light. Gradually, a single expression overtook them all: a smile. "Name him Carl."

* * *

A/N-- ....Well what was I supposed to do?!?! Have Carl get wrapped in a big wolf-hug and be held by a sweaty, barely-clothed Van Helsing afterwards?!?! I mean, I love the pairing, but STILL! Anyways, I hope that chappie wasn't too long... and no this isn't the end of the story!!!


	17. Chapter 16: Home, Hollow Home

A/N-- Wow... that last chapter took it out of me... anyways, I need to ask all of you a question: do you think this is dragging on too long? I have two plans for this story: the first one involves anywhere from four-six more chapters and Carl's death. The other would end the story in the chapter after this. I like either one, and I was just wondering which yall wanted....  
  
Thanks to all my lovely reviewers! They get more M&M's:  
  
**HyperCaz()**- If Carl was only second, was Van Helsing first? Cuz I was an inch away from killing him, but then Carl got the axe. And yes, I know I'm evil.... here, have some more M&M's!  
**Dare()**- Wait, come back! I'm responding to your review! Anyways, you'll see as to whether or not dearest Carl comes back... and a trio without a third person is a duo:-) I'm glad that you're happy Anna lived... And this isn't the last chapter (dun dun dun) it could be the second to last, however.  
**Lovely()**- Thank you, I AM an evil person! --beams-- I'm glad you enjoyed the kiss scene... I spent an ungodly amount of time on it, but it was fun! And- well, this chapter will start to reveal what Van Helsing will do about Carl's death...  
**Anthem82()**- Yes, moment of silence for Carl... I'm glad you liked that chapter. It was one of my favorites!  
**Allora**- OMG, your review had me rolling around on the ground in laughter! Yea, I just couldn't bring myself to kill Anna again. I gave all of you M&M' just so you'd be too busy eating to try and kill me... And yes, I did nearly swoon when Van Helsing changed back into a human covered in sweat and in minimal clothing!!! And that sequel sounds promising... LOL.  
**Celia()**- I actually like Carl/Gabriel's, but this one isn't one of those! And thanks for pointing that out about the author's notes, I hadn't noticed their frequency.  
**HealerAriel**- Yea, I thought naming the baby Carl was a nice touch.... and who knows? I believe in reincarnation too!  
**Doris()**- Wow, I'm glad you liked that chapter! Well you aren't special and you can't see her almost kiss him again!! I can!! LOL. That whole 'someone-has-to-die' thing is one of my favorite themes to explore in writing... there will always be fatalities in war, that's the way it is. And I thought it was good Stephen Sommers upheld that, so I wanted to preserve it. And I'll miss writing this...  
  
Okay, read this chapter and remember to tell me if you want me to cut the story off after one more chapter or if you want the 'extended' version!

* * *

Chapter 16:  
Home, Hollow Home  
  
While Anna had been enchanted with the sight of the sea, her stomach wasn't all too happy with its rolling gait. She was utterly miserable throughout their trip across the Adriatic, and that mood certainly complimented Van Helsing's. In a day, he would speak scarce 20 words to her... which worked, since if she tried to say something back, she had to find a bucket first.  
  
Of course, Van Helsing had always been a quiet man. He was used to his solitude, day one had told her that. But something had changed in him, snapped. Before he had been quiet, but he had radiated a kind of aura, a strong physical and spiritual presence that set him apart and drew her to him. Now that aura was much weaker, as if something had greatly weakened it. But she had been forced to let it go. Not all wounds bleed, and some have to heal on their own.  
  
When they reached Vatican City, he changed again. Now instead of seeming disbelieving, often standing long, expectant hours at Carl's side as though waiting for him to leap up again, he seemed resigned. But not defeated. He was far from that.  
  
"Bless me father, for I have sinned." He said as he knelt in the confessional. He and Anna waited for almost twenty minutes before a squat monk arrived.  
  
"So sorry Mr. Van Helsing. We still can't find the Cardinal, and no one thought that you'd be back from Romania so no one thought to wait here." He puffed as he opened the grate and led them to the secret staircase. "But then I thought I'd come up an check anyway.. most of us do every half hour or so." He chattered on as they descended. "I take it this is Princess Anna?"  
  
"Yes." Anna replied, looking about herself. "This is impressive." She remarked as they came into the main room.  
  
"Isn't it? We- what's that you've got?" The monk stopped midsentence and stared at Van Helsing. He was holding a large black bundle in his arms; as the cloth covering his face fell away, the others could tell it was Carl.  
  
"Good God, he's-?" The monk stopped short, unable to believe what he was seeing.  
  
"He's dead." Van Helsing confirmed quietly. At first only the people directly around them froze, but like a disease it spread through the whole room, until they were all gaping at Gabriel and Anna, unsure of what to do. If anything, it was Van Helsing who was supposed to come home dead. Not Carl.  
  
"How?" asked one nearby priest in a faltering voice. Van Helsing closed his eyes and was about to say it when Anna intervened.  
  
"My brother, Velkan. He was turned into a werewolf and killed Carl." She supplied quickly. She was afraid that if the Order knew Van Helsing killed Carl, they might kill him or turn him out onto the streets where, as Europe's most wanted man, he would be just as dead. Van Helsing looked at her briefly, but said nothing. He knew it probably hurt for her to have to frame her brother, and didn't want to belittle that.  
  
"God rest his soul." The monk that had led them in murmured, crossing himself. The others around them did likewise, bowing their heads. "Shall we take care of him now?" He asked kindly.  
  
"Yes." Van Helsing replied with hesitance, handing the black bundle with greatest care to a small party that was formed. As they took Carl away, he stood and watched. He took a half-step, as though meaning to follow, but Anna laid a hand on his arm.  
  
"You have been with him all this time, and you will be there when he finally goes." She said quietly. "It cannot be good to spend so much time with the dead. Come and be among the living for a while."  
  
"You are right." Van Helsing said with a weighted sigh.  
  
"I know you might wish to be in morning, sir," said a timid Friar that had often worked with Carl. "But you should report of the mission to Cardinal Kokolios. He's taken over in Cardinal Jinette's disturbing absence."  
  
"I expected that. Where is he?" He asked, fighting the urge to rub his eyes.  
  
"In Cardinal Jinette's office." The Friar replied before scuttling away again.  
  
"I shall go with you." Anna declared, keeping pace with Van Helsing as he made his way through the familiar catacombs.  
  
"It's nothing important." He said blandly. "I'm lucky they're even having me report. Normally it's 'good you're alive, here's what we want you to kill next now hop to it.'" A smile spasmed across Anna's face, but she held it back, abruptly unsure of whether she was supposed to laugh or not. Van Helsing noticed and gave her a smile.  
  
"I'm sorry my moods have been so hard to read lately." He said quietly as they paused in the corridor outside the Cardinal's office. "I should feel bad... you lost your brother and your father to Dracula and showed much less emotion than I am."  
  
"No, you should feel proud that you can show your emotions." She replied, taking both his hands.  
  
"Speaking of Prince Velkan... why did you lie about Carl's death?" He asked in a low voice, not meeting her eyes.  
  
"Because I didn't know what their reaction would be. I wouldn't want them to kill or forsake you." She said firmly, her grasp on his hands tightening slightly. "I'd understand if you wanted to tell just your leader or a select few, but not in front of all those people. You could not defend yourself against so many."  
  
"Are you implying that I'd just fight back and kill them too?" He asked with sudden sharpness, jerking his hands out of hers.  
  
"No, but you would defend yourself. If you didn't I'd be disappointed in you for not standing up to be counted." She shot back.  
  
"Standing up to be counted as a murderer?" He raised his voice slightly. "I've already been counted a hundred times for that. And maybe right now that murderer feels like dying!" Anna froze, watching as Van Helsing turned away.  
  
"Please don't say that." She whispered finally. "I have nothing Van Helsing. My family is all gone. Dracula was my only reason to breathe. I lived to kill him. And now... I don't know what to do with my life. I was hoping I could find that here." She took a deep breath; it shuddered out unsteadily, punctuating her next words with nervousness. "And I was hoping that somehow I could work you in to that. Please... don't take that away."  
  
There was a tense moment of silence, and then Van Helsing turned back around.  
  
"I'm... sorry, Anna. I've been a bit of a bastard lately." He said quietly.  
  
"Dracula must've rubbed off on you." She said with a soft laugh.   
  
She stepped a little closer, her hands resting lightly on Van Helsing's forearms. He knew she expected a kiss, but all he could do was wrap his arms around her. He found himself a little love-shy now; the last two times he had let his love for the amazing woman she was get out of hand people around him had suffered. She didn't seem unhappy with the warm embrace either, resting her head on his shoulder. He leaned his head against hers and rested his existence for a moment, letting go of his weariness and pain, but then he drew back.  
  
"You should stay here while I talk to Cardinal Kokolios." Van Helsing said.  
  
"All right." She sighed, leaning against the wall.  
  
Shaking his head, he knocked and, without waiting for an answer, entered the room.  
  
"Who is there?" Asked a sharp voice. Van Helsing almost winced; he had only met Cardinal Kokolios a few times and didn't like him very much. He was a strict, unforgiving leader, and while Cardinal Jinette had also been rather strict, it had been in an almost paternal manner. This was pure harshness. "Gabriel." He said curtly. "I was in the middle of prayers. You should've waited outside.  
  
"I have come to speak of my mission Father, and I wanted to do so as quickly as possible. I am tired and I have... other things to attend to." Van Helsing trailed off. He could face any amount of monsters you threw at him, but this Cardinal would never cease to terrify him.  
  
"Then tell me what happened and be done with it. Did you destroy Dracula?" He asked briskly, seating himself at the desk.  
  
"Yes, he was destroyed. Velkan Valerious-"  
  
"One question at a time." The Cardinal interrupted. "Now what about the Valeriouses?" Van Helsing almost gaped in disbelief. _What_ was the point of that whole interruption?  
  
"Velkan Valerious was turned into a werewolf and I was forced to kill him once he was under Dracula's thrall. Princess Anna is alive and well. In fact, she's waiting outside." He replied.  
  
"Why did you bring her back?"  
  
"Because so she wished." Van Helsing said tiredly.  
  
"Very well then." The Cardinal said. He looked back down at the papers on his desk and for a minute or two completely ignored Van Helsing. Then he looked up and saw that the monster hunter was still standing there. "Why are you still here? There are no pressing matters now, so you may retire. I will send Friar Carl for you once something arises."  
  
"Father, there is something else you should know." Van Helsing pressed. Cardinal Kokolios looked up again, irritated. "Friar Carl... did not survive the mission."   
  
The Cardinal bowed his head and began to murmur in Latin, a prayer Van Helsing recognized. Despair and self-hate filled his being in that moment, crushing him with their weight. He could not bear to tell that overbearing scarlet clown how Carl died. He couldn't. Without thinking, he whirled out of the room and back into the hall. He would've slammed the door shut, but his trembling arms would not allow it. All the strength he had worked for years to build up seemed gone as he leaned against the wall, his heart beating wildly. Now he understood Anna's fear for him...  
  
"Van Helsing?" Speak of the devil. Anna was standing before him. "How did it go?"  
  
"Fine. I told him what happened." He replied, having to fight viciously to keep a stutter out of his voice.  
  
"Did you tell him how?" She asked with a slight raise of her eyebrows.  
  
"They'll probably be cleaning out Carl's room. I should go help." Van Helsing said suddenly, breaking away from the wall and Anna. She sighed as she watched him go. She knew by his strong, fast pace that he did not intend for her to follow. _By Hell_, she swore to herself. _when did I ever listen to a man?_ A soft, resigned sigh puffed out of her lips. It wasn't in her to agitate him again. _Starting today I guess...._

* * *

No one had touched Carl's medium sized room recently. Van Helsing knew it would be so. He knew that most people were too afraid to approach the Friar's room, unsure of what they'd find. They would expect him to clean it out, because he knew the eccentric man best and would know what to keep and what to destroy.  
  
_I want to keep all of it..._  
  
There was a small cot with a warm woolen comforter in one corner and a square, well washed window on the wall it rested against. At the foot of the bed was a shelf unit he had designed and built into the corner himself; the part that touched the bed was a bookcase, and the adjoined part was a closet. The floor was bare except for a circular rug, worn with much pacing. Ink stains covered the rest of the boards.  
  
Underneath the window was a nightstand of rough wood. On top of it was a washbasin and a small black Bible; a rosary was dripped across it. But for a thin layer of dust, it was kept remarkably clean. That was more than Van Helsing could say for the rest of the room. The walls could scarcely be seen, because they were all covered in various pieces of paper, the plans for inventions. A large desk was opposite the bed, and not a single inch of it could be seen. It was covered in journals, notebooks, loose pieces of paper, crumpled pieces of paper, ripped pieces of paper, blank pieces of paper. Similar items littered the floor all around.  
  
Van Helsing knelt in the middle of all the chaos, unsure of where to start. It felt like sacrilege to even consider moving any of it. They were a part of Carl, and he would have to disturb it. Feeling like a child who had been scolded for breaking a window on accident and was now told to pick up the pieces, he forced himself to start with the papers on the desk.  
  
He began to make neat piles of them in some of the free space on the floor. Every time he came across a notebook, he laid it in a different pile. A ball of twine was found hidden behind one of those, and he used it to bind up the now towering stacks of paper. He brushed his hand across the ragged edge of one paper he retrieved; it reminded him so much of Carl it hurt. He was basically talking to himself on paper, writing about his ideas for the powder that created a flash of light. Look, there was an ink splot where once his pen had rested too long...  
  
Gabriel forced himself to add it to a pile. Now the shards of glass were beginning to cut.  
  
There was something mindless in the work after a while, and he began to lose himself in it. After the desk was cleaned and he had moved the piles onto the bed, he began to take down the drawings on the wall, making similar piles. It looked like Carl had been working on improvements to the Tojo blades and the gas-powered crossbow, and smoothing out some of the impracticalities of the rapid firing gun that Van Helsing wanted so badly. Next came the books and the clothes, lain with utmost care on top of one another on the nightstand and around it.  
  
When his work was done, he sat in the sterile clean of Carl's room. Now even IT felt dead. Putting back all that cheerful clutter would bring it alive again, he realized. And then he began to think about something...

* * *

For a solid hour, Anna gave Van Helsing his space by wondering the Order's catacombs. As that mark passed, she realized how pointless it was to be doing so. None of it made sense without someone to tell her about it. Her passionate independence made her hate to admit it, but it she wanted to start her new life here, she'd need Van Helsing's help.  
  
"Excuse me." Anna called, stopping the large priest at the forge. "Could you tell me where the late Friar Carl's room is?  
  
"Oh aye, it's just down the hall, up a flight of stairs through the cellar into the abbey and on the second floor. I think it's the middle room on the left side." He shook his head. "Shame 'bout him. Young man, brilliant man. Would ye like some boxes to help clean out his room?"  
  
"Sure." She replied. The priest gave her two huge wooden crates. "Thank you." She said around them, then she set off.  
  
It wasn't hard at all to find Carl's room once she was in the abbey; Van Helsing had left the door open. He was sitting in the middle of the room, chin on his hands, staring off into space. All the contents of the room, in neat stacks, were around him. He was surrounded by the pieces of a broken world.  
  
"Van Helsing?" She asked tentatively. He started and then looked her way. It was hard to see her from behind the crates.  
  
"Did they send me some walking boxes to help?" He jocularly asked.  
  
"No, I came on my own." She giggled as he took a crate. "Want me to put some stuff away?"  
  
"Yes. We'll put the clothes and books in one; the Order can still use those. We'll put all his papers, notebooks and drawings in the other. It'll take us a while to sort through the papers... I mean me." He quickly ammended. "You don't need to help if you don't want to."  
  
"Why would I not? In a way, Carl gave his life for me. Caring for his legacy is the least I can do." She said in a firm tone. Silently, they packed the two crates. When they were done, Anna sat on the bed and watched Van Helsing lean against the opposite wall, looking out the window. She felt the sudden need for conversation. There was so little she knew about him.  
  
"What's your first name?" She asked without warning. "I mean it seems a little silly... I've been calling you Mr. Van Helsing the whole time."  
  
"Gabriel is my first name." Van Helsing replied quietly.  
  
"Gabriel..." She said slowly, rolling the name around her tongue. "I like that name." He smiled gently, but said nothing She sighed inwardly and started again. "What's your favorite color?"  
  
"You know, I never really thought about that." He laughed. "I don't have one. Or maybe I do and I just don't remember."  
  
"Well maybe I can help... red?" She asked, watching for a reaction.  
  
"Nope. Reminds me of blood." He said with a shake of his head.  
  
"Green?"  
  
"Nope. It's the opposite of red."  
  
"Isn't that a good thing?" Anna asked with confusion.  
  
"No because it reminds me of red which reminds me of blood."   
  
"You aren't making this easy. Yellow?"  
  
"Do I have to tell you why I don't like that?" Anna rolled her eyes at his boyishness.  
  
"Black?"  
  
"Too dark. Reminds me of Dracula."  
  
"Blue?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Well what the hell is wrong with blue?" She quipped, her hands on her hips.  
  
"Black and blue remind me of bruises!" He chortled. Anna stood and slapped his arm.  
  
"You're a very violent man, Van Helsing!" She grinned. "Gabriel..." She added quietly a moment later.  
  
"Analiese used to say my name like that." He whispered. They were so close, but then she stepped away.  
  
"Forgive me. I did not mean to bring up painful memories." She said a little shortly.  
  
"You could not help it." He sighed, retrieving one of the creates. Anna cursed inwardly. She had destroyed the momentary joviality she had worked to bring to him. "We'll take both crates o my room and start sorting the papers." He remarked dully as she picked up the other crate and followed him out of the room.  
  
Van Helsing's room was in the very back of the Order's catacombs. The mostly uninhabited place was dark save for two candles that he lit, which revealed a black cot in the corner, a nightstand, and a desk. Even with Van Helsing seated at the desk and Anna on bed dividing the papers between them, evening came and they were only halfway through the stack. It was probably because Van Helsing insisted it be very neatly and painstakingly separated. Diagrams and drawings had to be put in order as best they could and, if possible, but with any corresponding notes. The papers and journals were stacked according to their subject matter and their age. Conversation was minimal, occurring only when one needed the other's help placing this or reading that. so when Van Helsing spoke up Anna was a little surprised.  
  
"It's getting late." He said., standing and picking up the crate of clothes and books. "I'm going to go give these to the other priests... want me to help you find a room?"  
  
"Sure..." she said, languidly stretching as she stood too. They found a room at the opposite end of the hall Van Helsing's room was down, and there they bid each other a cordial good night.  
  
Van Helsing continued on his way, into the main cavern. Even though night was fast coming, activity showed no sign of slowing. This place took no notice of time. That was well, he supposed, for a place and people that _did not exist_. The creatures he fought saw more of life and the sun, he thought with a little contempt.  
  
"Here. I have some of Friar Carl's things I thought you might still find useful." He said to a couple of Carl's apprentices he pulled aside.  
  
"Thank you, sir." One said, taking the books off the top. His fellow removed the clothes.  
  
"You should take the books to the library. Unless they have his name in them, they were just 'permanently borrowed.'" Supplied the other as the first put the books back in the crate.  
  
"I'll do that." Van Helsing replied. "Some time tomorrow I might be back with some diagrams and notes on inventions he was working on for you."  
  
"We'll wait until then to see you again." Said the first. With that, they scurried off.  
  
_No doubt_ _to be rid of his clothing somewhere_. Van Helsing thought bitterly._ They are so quick to do so. They are always ready to accept the death of someone like me, they would not be frightened if I died. Because at some point, I'm not supposed to come home. But they are never prepared for someone like Carl, one of their own, to leave them. That's just not how it works. So now they don't want contact with his things, like he contracted some rare disease and they're afraid they might catch it.  
_  
But then he thought of how quick he'd been to clean out Carl's room. Was he eager to do away with all traces of the man, trying to hide his guilt for murdering him? He justified his quickness to clean the room as a way to get some alone time. To be away from Anna? Was he trying to push away what he had fought so long for? Was Carl's sacrifice in vain?  
  
He forced himself not to think about it any more. He would go to the library and lose himself among the memories of his oldest and dearest friend, whether they were unwanted or no.  
  
The library was quiet, with only its curator, kindly Father Anderson, present. He had already heard of Carl's death, and thanked Van Helsing for the return of the books.  
  
"I was fond of him." The older man sighed. "Very cheerful, always in here. And never returning his books!" He harrumphed, then laughed. "But I liked him all the same. Made me like him more, it seemed. Just another of his quirks. Would you mind putting those books back for an old priest?"  
  
"Of course, Father." Van Helsing murmured listlessly, moving to a candlelit table. He found himself wishing Anna was there. Her graceful presence softened the light, dulled the pain, brightened the world. But she was sleeping now, and he was alone but for his haunting demons.  
  
Locating a piece of parchment and a quill (Father Anderson was a nostalgic man) he wrote down all the names of the books in case the apprentices/helpers in Carl's lab needed them later. As he reached the bottom of the stack, they began to involve ancient history, attempts at immortality, and times itself. There, at the very bottom, was the fateful book itself that allowed them to turn back time, taken from the magic-user's house after she died.   
  
Some titles he vaguely remembered being mentioned in Carl's notes, and he removed these. After making a separate list of the ones he assumed involved their time traveling adventure, he put the unrelated ones back. His coat had enough ingenious pockets in it to take the others back out...  
  
"Mr. Van Helsing." said a dry, fricative voice. Caught off his guard, the monster hunter whirled to see a disdainful Cardinal Kokolios.  
  
"Yes Father?" He asked stiffly.  
  
"You never told me the nature of Friar Carl's demise." asked the cold-hearted man.  
  
"You never asked." Van Helsing spat back. Drawing his coat, now a snug home to six volumes involving time, he exited quickly. All that night, he would study them as Carl must have. Hopefully, he would find a way to restore happiness to the void his 'home' had become.

* * *

A/N-- What will Van Helsing do with Carl's notes on time travel? What will Anna do with her new freedom? And what will the Cardinal do when he finds out how Carl died?!?  
  
I dunno. Do you? 


	18. Chapter 17: Hope and Shadow

A/N-- Heh, I was being sarcastic when I said 'I dunno.' last chapter.... as great as all your suggestions were, I actually DO have a plot for the next part. And since no one really said anything against me continuing this further, yall are getting the extended version!!! be happy, be sad, whatever!!  
  
**Dare()**- I'm glad you're back from the hills and like the complexities in the Anna/Gabriel. I didn't want to have everything be happy and good between them... I love nothing more than a great angsty romance, because that makes them getting together all the more sweet. Of course, I do also like ones with sad endings.... heh... Again, I was kidding when I said I dunno. You'll see how everything plays out.  
**Lovely()**- Oh c'mon! that was one of my milder cliffies! And ya, I thought it was a bit long.  
You're meant to hate the new Cardinal! And don't you remember? Dracula killed Jinette's ancestors and he died mysteriously in chapter one!!! That's how they found out they had to go back!  
I promise: no more character death!! I swear!! I couldn't handle another death scene, anyway. I won't kill Cardinal Kokolios... I have sentimental attachments to his name.  
Okay, you get the extended version!  
**Allora()**- Hey, respect your elders! Don't beat up Cardinal Kokolios! LOL. Does no one remember Jinette dying in Chapter One?! And torturing people is so much fun..... Reviewers, faithful or no, aren't excused! ((Don't worry, I still luv ya all!))  
**Anthem82()**- I'm glad you liked that chapter! This one will reveal what Van Helsing will do with the notes on time travel.  
**HealerAriel**- LOL, I know everyone hates the new Cardinal, but your way of dealing with him is the most creative!!!  
**holamaca()**- Hmm, that would be interesting... but I do know how they'll turn out...  
**Doris()**- FOR THE LAST TIME!!! I ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!!! LOL. Remind me to cut back on the sarcasm....  
I'm glad you like my internal monologues... I always write them without thinking about it. It's an instinct that comes from RPing, since you're in the characters minds. Usually I'm afraid of doing it too much. And in this, Van Helsing loves Anna since he fell in love with her not remembering Analiese.  
I'm glad you liked that line... I always try to add humor, no matter how dark the hour.  
I actually do remember some smiles on their parts..... in the rain scene, in the windmill. I know Anna smiles, and I'm fairly certain Van Helsing does too. I'm on the fence with a movie sequel... but if they were to pick one of the ones on here, I'd be happy!!! Thank you for your review!!  
  
I've noticed a lot of you want me to go to hell... so many people say 'damn you!' in their reviews!!

* * *

Chapter 17:  
Hope and Shadow  
  
Van Helsing didn't sleep at all that night. He couldn't afford to; if he lost the realizations blossoming in his head nonstop, he might lose his chance to save Carl. At first he felt like he was doing well, finding the notes corresponding to the books he had, reading through the mentioned passages, comprehending Carl's theories But after all that was done and it came to understanding first the formula in the magick book and then Carl's more scientific adaptations, he figured out that he was in way over his head. All he understood was this was stuff for going far, far back, as far back as they had needed to do for the mission. He didn't need that, he needed something more concentrated. Just enough to go back a week or so.  
  
He considered asking some of his lab helpers for their assistance, but they might find it suspicious. And he didn't want to attract attention to this, for some confusing reason. At some point, if this succeeded, they _just might_ realize Carl was alive again. But then he could explain it, free from their scrutiny. How could they be upset with one of their own back? Anyway, this was his undertaking. His mistake. He was going to fix it on his own.  
  
His eyes were blurring and his body growing numb after unrecorded time spent in vain to glean some small idea as to how he could undo his mistake, Van Helsing stumbled across a sheet that appeared to be used for brainstorming ways they could go back. Most were scribbled out to the point of not being readable, but two were left: one option was 'potion/formula/spell,' which he assumed was the way they had gone back, but there was one more below it:  
  
_'The Wavewriter?'_  
  
A frown creased his forehead. Wavewriter? It sounded like a person.... Something began to creep over him. Throwing the page to the side, he proceeded to search each book he had brought back with him and all relevant notes for the name 'Wavewriter.' He discovered it at last in a book of ancient history on the same page Dracula was mentioned as the Son of the Devil. From what he could glean, this person, place, or item, was in Transylvania.  
  
Part of him was raring to jump up and, without a word, disappear back to Transylvania and save Carl. But then he realized that this wasn't some monster he could approach, guns blazing, and pray he could kill. All he had was a name and a place; he didn't even know what this... _thing _did. He needed more information. So, completely unaware of anything but his mission, he left his room and headed to the library.  
  
Reasoning that he had found it in a book of ancient history, he resolved to search the cavernous section of the headquarters for a book of Romanian history. He could not say how long it took, because he was now swept up in the pulsing, never-ending rush that was the Holy Order. In searching for way to change its flow, he was becoming unaware of time. All that mattered was eventually he found a book on Romania and sat down at a table to read it.  
  
Once more he hit a dead end; there was absolutely nothing in the book about the Wavewriter. As Van Helsing slammed the book back down on the shelf he got it from, he noticed another volume: _Romanian Myths_. There was hesitation in him as he removed the book from the shelf. Obviously this Wavewriter had had no impact on Romanian history. Did that mean it was a myth? _Carl wouldn't stake our livelihood on a myth._ He thought fiercely. _He had to have some proof... But he was working on a tight schedule, people were dying everywhere.... maybe he was forced to?_  
  
_ It doesn't matter. I'm willing to take a chance on a myth for him.  
_  
Filled with new resolve, he sat down at the table between the two bookcases and began to read.

* * *

Anna had been awake for a few hours when she finally sidled into the library. It was just after lunch, and having found no companions among the monks and priests, she decided to seek out Van Helsing. To her dismay, he seemed to have pulled a disappearing act. No one had seen him. He was not in his room, had not been to the site of Carl's old lab (already they referred to it as 'old.') and had not been seen at the stables. So he couldn't have left for somewhere very far or dangerous if he had gone away. But Anna doubted that; something had been fundamentally wrong with him since Transylvania.  
  
_Why do I worry so about him?_ She had scowled as she paced the hall outside his room. _I hardly know him. I just found out what his first name is yesterday! And I still don't know his favorite color.... Why do I even care about **that?**_  
  
Because his mystery drew her in, she realized. He made her want to know about him, discover his problems and make them go away. He kept himself distant, and it made her curious. And every time she found out some knew little piece about him, it made her like him more and wish to get just another little tidbit. And then another...  
  
_Good God,_ She wondered as she froze. _Am I falling in love with him?_  
  
Ruffled, she shook the thought off. But she could not shake off the urge to go and see him. On an impulse, she had decided to look for him in the library. It was quiet and cool there, its unique scent, soothing atmosphere and the formidable presence of age and knowledge's power would calm her and allow her to think straight if nothing else. Van Helsing, even the thought of him, could rile to irrationality her so easily.  
  
She casually paced the rows of bookcases, peeking in each one for some sight of Van Helsing. Surely enough, there he was, in one of the farthest rows, seated at a table. His back was to her, and he seemed to be intent on something in front of him. Her customary courage suddenly failed her. What if he was in another mood? What if she was interrupting something important?  
  
_Well I'll just make myself more important._ She thought airily to herself. But she possessed the class not to just go barging over and taking all of his attention. She sidled over to one bookcase, pretending to browse the shelf and moving ever closer to Van Helsing. He'd notice her presence when he was ready.  
  
In truth, Van Helsing had known she was there the moment she entered the room. She had been in his head and his heart for hundreds of years, he was familiar with her unique aura. But at that moment, she was simply a comfort; a warm light in the darkness of his mind. He might really be on to something...  
  
Anna grew impatient. She had moseyed around him long enough with no response. With strong, direct steps, she came to stand directly behind him.  
  
"What are you researching?" She asked, leaning over his shoulder.  
  
"Oh, nothing." He muttered unconvincingly. He was still engrossed in his reading. She reached over and half closed the book to be able to see the title.  
  
"Romanian myths? Why didn't you ask me?" She asked with shock. He immediately slammed the book closed.  
  
"Because I... didn't think you'd know what I needed to know." Van Helsing finished lamely, standing.  
  
"What would make you think that? I was _born_ in Romania. And what's more, you were looking at something in Transylvania. That's only where I lived my whole life!" She said as she came to her feet too.  
  
"It's really obscure." He countered, backing away slightly.  
  
"Well I was gypsy royalty and my family had a centuries-old vendetta against Dracula. I've _fought_ or at least learned about every single mythical creature or being in Romania." Anna replied, following him. "Now what do you need to know?"  
  
"It's nothing." He insisted.  
  
"You're being stubborn!" She cried crossly, arms akimbo.  
  
"And you're not by pushing the matter?" He fired back, adopting a similar pose.  
  
"Fine, I'm being stubborn too. But I'm trying to _help_." She sighed.  
  
"Well maybe I don't need help." Was his enigmatic reply. "Maybe I just need to be left alone!"  
  
"Maybe I think you need help! And maybe I think both of us have been alone for far too long!" She practically shouted. Van Helsing relaxed, looking at her sadly. What she said was too true.  
  
"You're right." He conceded, sitting back down and opening the book to where he had been. Anna perched herself on the table beside him and looked down at the book. "Have you heard of the Wavewriter?"  
  
"Well, most of what we learned involved Dracula..." She trailed off. "But I vaguely recognize the name. All I really remember is either it's evil or it is in an evil place. Yes, that's it. We were taught that there was only one evil greater than Dracula... and it involved the Wavewriter."  
  
"Yes, that's essentially what the text says. Do you know why it's evil?" He asked, gesturing to the book. "It doesn't say much specific about it. Just that it's high in the Carpathians."  
  
"I think I remember... something about time..." Anna's eyes went glassy for a moment, as though she was lost in memory. Van Helsing watched her in her frozen state. All his walls melted when around her, leaving him feeling vulnerable... but exhilarated. Like standing at the edge of a high cliff looking down at an oasis. He reached over and took her hand, jerking her back to reality.  
  
"Thought I was losing you." He smiled faintly at her questioning look. She returned the gesture before speaking.  
  
"It's right that the text is vague about its powers and its location. That information inthe wrong hands could be terrible. The Wavewriter was called evil because it- we never knew if it was a person or an item -could rewrite time. Changing fate is considered a violation of some of the most basic principles of the world, since it could have devastating consequences. Also, there is supposed to be some sort of evil that flocks to it and protects it." She paused, suspicion glinting in her eyes. "Why are you researching this anyways?"  
  
"It's.... mission stuff, nothing more." He said dismissively, closing the book and returning it to its shelf.  
  
"You've been given a mission involving the Wavewriter?" She asked incredulously as he returned.  
  
"...As a background prospect. We suspect that a cult may be using some of its power to alter time and take out its rivals that way. Sort of how Dracula was killing of ancestors of the Order on a smaller scale." He said, quickly coming up with a story. If Anna believed in the whole 'changing fate is a violation of the world' concept, she would NOT be happy with this whole 'let's save Carl by rewriting time' plan.  
  
"Oh... will you have to leave soon?" She asked sadly, looking up at him.  
  
"No. I'm not going anywhere." He whispered in return, bending down to kiss her softly. Her hands had barely touched his neck when he withdrew, still hovering close. In both of them, there was the desire to continue, to not be afraid anymore, but there were barriers around their hearts that would not tumble instantly, no matter how great their need. Both broke contact entirely.  
  
"Oh, I almost forgot. The Cardinal is looking for you." Anna informed him with a trace of awkwardness. It was an odd thing to be talking about after sharing a kiss, however brief. Would their work always be in the way? He lamented internally.  
  
"Well, I suppose I should go find him for another round of sherry and giggles." (A/N-- LXG rocks!) He said gloomily. "I'll see you later."  
  
"I look forward to it." She returned a little shyly. With a wave and a half-smile, he left.

* * *

Van Helsing opened the door to the Cardinal's office without knocking. He couldn't stand the man, and didn't give a damn about respecting him. The ruffled official looked up irritably as the Monster Hunter entered.  
  
"Please, come in." He said dryly.  
  
"You sent for me, Father?" asked Van Helsing mockingly.  
  
"Firstly, let us have this straight between us." said Cardinal Kokolios in a dangerous tone as he stood directly in front of Van Helsing. "Cardinal Jinette is not here. Given the length of his absence, it is likely that he has been taken in the bosom of our Lord. I do not run things as he did. I do not expect you to like me, and don't expect me to like you. You have already committed some great sin to have arrived to where you are now.  
  
"I demand respect. Before entering my chambers, you will knock and wait for my reply. I expect you to come to me before anyone else after your missions, and I expect you to follow every detail of my instructions. I say I want a monster back alive, I expect it alive. I want it dead, I expect to never hear of it again after you tell me how you killed it. You will not speak until spoken to."  
  
"Do I get no respect? I'm the one who comes home washing the blood off my hands. I'm the one who goes out and _murders_ monsters so that your sorry asses are safe. I'm the one who can't show his face in a single decent place in all bloody Europe for fear of being killed because of _your_ orders!" Van Helsing shouted with sudden vehemence.  
  
"You get respect and you get fear. You shouldn't care about what you get, you are nothing but a sinner whose memories have already been struck from your mind by God so that you can concentrate on redemption. You shouldn't care about anything else." The Cardinal seethed. "Are we clear now?"  
  
"Yes _sir_." Van Helsing spat back.  
  
"Good. Now, how was it that Friar Carl died?" Cardinal Kokolios asked smugly, sitting down again.  
  
"I killed him." Van Helsing replied quietly. It was the first time he would be admitting it out loud. "By some stupid mischance I lost control and killed him." The Cardinal closed his eyes and crossed himself, murmuring in Latin. Then he lumbered to his feet once more and went to stand beside the crackling fire. It cast leering black shadows all over his red form and cast a red-orange light over Van Helsing. It was as though it was embracing the Cardinal and pointing out Van Helsing. _Murderer!_ It cackled.  
  
"People have been eliminated for killing members of the Holy Order." Cardinal Kokolios said in a low voice. "I do not see why the rule shouldn't apply to one of our members. In fact, it should apply _doubly_ so to one of our members, since the act brands them traitor."  
  
"It was an-"  
  
"I don't care what words spew out of your mouth in your defense." He loudly interrupted, turning around. Now the fire was "The crime and the punishment stand unmoving between us now, Gabriel. But I am a merciful man..." He trailed off. "I give you twenty-four hours to leave this place and run from here. If any of our members find you ever again, they will be given permission to kill you. If you wish to be brave and face the consequences of killing your friend.... stay in your room for twenty-four hours and make peace with God. At the end of this period of time you will not be afraid to be executed in penitence."  
  
"I will-"  
  
"I did not ask for an answer. Leave now. Once one day has passed, I will go to your room. If you are not there I will assume you have fled in fear of judgment before our Lord. If you are..." He crossed himself. "Then may God have mercy upon your soul. Now leave and make your choice."  
  
Van Helsing was all too eager to leave, slamming shut the door so hard he might've broken it. The Cardinal didn't know about the third option: get to Romania, find the Wavewriter whatever the hell it was and bring Carl back with him. And so be redeemed. Or maybe he would just find a way to bring back Carl and he, the Friar and Anna could roam the world, fighting evil...  
  
Anna. He had to find her. But he would not tell her about his casting out... He would say he had been sent on a mission. Her independence and worry for him should cause her to want to come along. Later, when they were with Carl again and laughing at all this, he would tell her what might've happened otherwise. Acting on a hunch, he headed off to her room.

* * *

His knock at her door and his prayers were answered by Anna herself. She looked as though she had just awakened.  
  
"How did the meeting with Cardinal Kokolios go?" She yawned. "Forgive me, I was napping."   
  
"I've been sent on a mission to Transylvania." He said after taking a deep breath.  
  
"The one you were telling me about earlier?" She queried.  
  
"Yes." Was his response.  
  
"I am coming with you." She declared immediately. His heart leapt with joy, but he didn't want her to think he had been expecting her to come. She would question him if he didn't resist as he had been lately.  
  
"Anna-"  
  
"Don't you start with me Gabriel. Not only do I know the country and its people extensively, I _want_ to go. I wouldn't let you have all the fun." She said decisively. _She's just like_ _Carl was when we were preparing to go back in time._ He thought to himself.  
  
"Very well." Van Helsing sighed. "We won't need extensive weaponry for this, its just a capturing mission. We are to track down the members of the cult and bring them back here alive. Shouldn't be to difficult, they're probably just magic wielding humans. We are not to interfere with the Wavewriter unless absolutely necessary."  
  
"Alright, should we just leave right away then?" She briskly asked, girding her sword and pausing to run a hand through her thick hair before joining him on the way out.  
  
"Yes. There is no time to lose." Van Helsing replied, sticking to the shadows as they left the headquarters for Transylvania.  
  
And for Carl.

* * *

A/N-- Okay, the first part of that chapter was crap... But I'm pretty happy with the rest. And be assured: I have a plot for the rest of the story!!! And it no longer involves Cardinal Kokolios!! So rejoice and review! 


	19. Chapter 18: A Storm is Coming

* * *

A/N-- I'd just like to mention how happy I am every time I get one of your reviews.... you guys really brighten my days. I'll miss working on this story when it's over... but I have some other ones planned. Maybe even a sequel! But that one's on the fence...  
  
**Dare()**- Yup, LXG was awesome.... especially Skinner!  
ROFLMAO, a Hawaiian surfer monk? I was waiting for someone to make a joke like that.... Well, the Gabriel/Anna relationship will get more complicated on its own, but that is a good idea. And Cardinal Jinette will remain dead. I was in a bad mood with him on the day I wrote the plot for this:-)  
**Allora**- LOL, yes, no more Cardinal... I hope you like what I cooked up with this. It might be a little burnt!  
**Doris()**- LOL, I'm so glad everyone hates that guy...  
I didn't mean to insult you! I know it's hard to read emotions online... And I'm glad that you're glad it'll be longer!  
You'll see, starting this chapter, what Van Helsing has to do to get Carl back...  
LOL, it's okay, I wouldn't expect you to remember all the way back to the first chappie.... OOH!!! ONLINE COOKIES!!! --gobbles cookies-- fank oo!  
**HyperCaz()**- Oh good, you're calm again... Nothin' scarier than a pissed off reviewer... LOL. See, I told you this wasn't the end of the story! Aren't you (semi) happy now?  
**HealerAriel**-....here, have some M&M's for your hard work.....  
**Lovely()**- YAY! I'm loved! Glad to know you don't want me to go to hell... I'm sure it's an inspiring place to work tho.  
I'm really happy everyone enjoys my take on the Gabriel/Anna relationship. I wanted to make sure they didn't just fall head over heels for each other, because with their personalities and what both of them went through I just knew it wasn't gonna happen. Especially with all the guilt I put on Gabriel. And I'm HAPPY you hate Kokolios! I wanted to make him an annoying bastard...  
In... I believe one or two more chapters after this (I have to consult the plot bunnies) you'll find out how Anna reacts to his little plan:-) I'll try not to use TOO much angst!  
**Anthem82()**- Don't worry, I want everyone to hate Kokolios! And here's more for your reading pleasure!  
**magot123**- Hmm, I'm thinking of how I can work it in... and I just might be able to...  
  
I just thought I'd pause and tell everyone how stoked I am this has gotten over 100 reviews... thank you so much. I've never been so proud of a story before.

* * *

Chapter 18:  
A Storm is Coming  
  
Much to Anna's dismay, they were soon back on the damned ship. But she forced herself to suck it up and try and enjoy the beauty of the sea, learning to control her seasickness by convincing herself throwing up in the water would only damage its beauty, something she had waited so long to see.  
  
Van Helsing seemed much more lucid this time around. He was no longer aimlessly drifting around the ship, staring over his shoulder at the receding land or holding day-long vigils over Carl's body. She was glad he was beginning to move on; or at least she hoped he was moving on. He could be so hard to read... Certainly, he was infinitely more focused than he had been before. Instead of staring at the sea hopelessly, times when she would stand close beside him and not know what to say, he would stare at it intently, obviously thinking hard on something. Then, without warning, he'd whirl off to the room they shared and sit on his bed, rooting through Carl's notes. Day by day, he seemed to be growing happier about something.  
  
But, by contrast, his nights were growing steadily more tortured. Anna would awaken to the sound of him tossing and turning, even making motions as though he was fighting off something. And then he would lie deathly still, every muscle twitching, sweat streaming down his face, taking harsh and strident breaths of fear. Once, she had gone to his side and awoken him; his initial reaction was to seize her by the throat, leaving her gasping for breath. But soon his own breaths slowed and his eyes went wide with recognition. His hand released her throat, then trailed up to trace the curve of her cheek., getting lost in her hair on the way down.  
  
"Anna... I'm sorry..." Gabriel whispered thickly, his hand falling back down to his side.  
  
"For what?" She asked, taking his hand again. But he had slipped off, beyond her reach once more.  
  
She knelt at the side of his bed, his hand still in hers. That's what always happened. Every time they'd get close, connect somehow, he would slip away. He was always once step out of her reach, just to the point where she could feel his pain but could do nothing about it because he would not allow her in. She should give up. Just give up on that crazy mystery of a man. She could help him, she knew it, if only he would let her in... But he would never do so.  
  
_I'll tell him_. She decided suddenly. _When we dock I'll tell him that I'm leaving. but should I give up so soon...?_  
  
As shadows of doubts flickered across her mind, he groaned and started to toss again. But she held tight to his hand, squeezing it to remind him that she was still there. Slowly, his taut muscles relaxed and he grew calm once more. She let out a sigh of relief.  
  
_Wait, I was holding my breath?_ She caught herself suddenly. _He draws me in too easily, catches hold of me with barely a thought. That cannot be healthy for either of us, as we take over each other..._  
  
She withdrew her hand from his and curled up on her bed, trying to convince herself she should let him go. But then she heard his tossing renew itself and could not help but go to his side again and take his hand, trying to banish his demons as best she could.

* * *

But this time, Anna's presence couldn't save Van Helsing. She was like some distant beacon. He knew she existed, but he couldn't seem to remember where...  
  
He was back at the castle where he had lived with Vlad and all their friends. He ambled through its halls without purpose, drinking in the copper sunlight. It must've been near the end of the day to have such a color. His left hand brushed against the bare wall, and he suddenly recoiled. Where his hand had touched there was a splatter of warm, fresh blood. A chill ran suddenly through the room, and he hurried out of it. Abruptly, he was in the garden. The copper light was all around him, perhaps a little too close. It was sticking to him, trying to peel off his skin. But he kept walking. What was he looking for again?  
  
And then he saw her, wearing a black dress. The sleeves were Long angel sleeves, black silk covered in black lace, reached nearly to the ground. The bodice was of red silk and cut low, lined with delicate black lace. Her hair was swept up in an elegant chignon; the copper light clung to it too. She was surrounded by red and white roses in full bloom. Droplets of water from the fountain behind her had landed on their petals and caught little shimmering drops of light within themselves. It was so beautiful, she was so beautiful, but why would Analiese not smile?  
  
Van Helsing reached out slowly for her, and she stepped close to him, allowing him to run his hands along her collarbone and across her bare shoulders, still watching him with the same sad expression. He took both her hands and kissed their knuckles, he was about to take her fully into his arms when she cried out in pain and collapsed against him. He tried to scream her name, but the icy wind that tore through then stole his voice. It tore up the roses too, sending a whirlwind of red and white petals all around them. He tried to release her but they were already locked together as the world ended around them.  
  
"It is too late." She said calmly.  
  
_No it's not_! His mind screamed, but still his voice was carried away by the wind. Blood began to run from the fountain...  
  
"Don't be sad." Analiese told him gently. "'Tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all." And then she turned to ashes in his arms, as did everything else around him. The light was shattered, the pieces of copper digging into his skin...  
  
Now he was in the Order's headquarters, still torn and bleeding. Carl approached him, chattering excitedly and there was Cardinal Jinette too, telling him of his mission. in Transylvania. And without warning, he was there again, fighting off the Brides of Dracula, Anna at his side. She was actually a little different from Analiese; her hair was darker, heading more towards brown. Analiese had possessed a more red hue.  
  
His heart began to pound in his chest. He was fighting Dracula. Fighting his best friend... And then Dracula was dead, and part of him was mourning. He had loved to laugh, loved to dance, loved to live... and all had been wrenched from him because of jealousy and rage, his heart and emotions torn out of his chest because he had loved too passionately.  
  
But Van Helsing had not been punished. He still had Anna, he could still hope to feel, as far removed from emotion as he might seem at times. And there she was, running to him with the antidote. The cure pumped like liquid daylight through his veins, scorching him, but cauterizing his wounds. Anna had saved him, and he had saved her. He still had Carl too. Now he could live again, with a best friend and a lover, (if she loved him, he nervously thought) free of Dracula's curse.  
  
Still, that was not to be. He had killed Carl. His best friend. Now he could never be completely whole.  
  
Yet light was shining into his mind, pure and golden. He would save Carl. Once more be the hero, not the murderer. No matter the consequences, he could save Carl...  
  
Now he was walking on water. All around him were patches of light; memories, it seemed. Or perhaps different fates. Anna was beside him, her face reflected in the crystalline water. Dracula was but a shadow, flitting faintly behind him. And up ahead, he could see Carl! there were no barriers between them, and the Friar was just standing there, waiting. Laughing at Van Helsing's hesitation.  
  
"Shut up already, I'm coming to get you!" He called out crossly to his friend.   
  
He took one step... and ripples spread rapidly through the water. The colored lights flickered and changed. Some faded out and new ones were made in different places. He shook it off and took another step. Just a couple more and he could reach Carl... But once more the water rippled and things changed. Faintly, he heard Anna calling out for him to stop and comeback.  
  
"I have to get Carl!" He shouted back. But now Carl was backing away, shaking his head.  
  
"No, don't Van Helsing!" He said shakily.  
  
"I'm coming to get you!" Van Helsing insisted, taking two long strides. The water shook violently, and the lights were wildly flickering, dying and being reborn, melding together and being ripped apart. But whatever the hell it meant didn't matter. He could almost reach Carl.  
  
But Carl was watching him with absolute horror on his face, beginning to run backwards.  
  
"Van Helsing! Van Helsing!" Anna screamed behind him. He whirled to see a massive tidal wave sweeping towards him, pulling him farther away from Anna. But it would subside, and after he got Carl he could get back to her. He began to run after his friend, shouting out from him to slow down and come back.  
  
But the water buckled beneath him and he fell, helpless in the wave's wake. It crushed him and tossed him about before finally forcing him under. All the light and color and sound floated lazily away, leaving him in mute darkness.  
  
_YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE HERE.  
_  
The voice came from nowhere, echoing in Van Helsing's head.  
  
_YOU ARE NOT READY._  
  
Still there was no sign of a speaker. His heart began to pound loudly in his ears, creating a cacophonous rhythm that the voice spoke in time with.  
  
_YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND.  
  
GO.  
_  
And then all was mute again, but for his pounding heart. He remained there, frozen and helpless. Things began to grow fuzzy and unrecognizable. He forgot who he was. Who he had been fighting for. Why he existed. What time was. He... forgot.  
  
_Gabriel....  
_  
The voice was quick and soft as footsteps in the snow. And equally disturbing.  
  
_Gabriel_.  
  
It was more drawn out now.  
  
_Gabriel._  
  
The word was repeated over and over and over again. Van Helsing knew it was important, but he couldn't remember why. His heart began to pound faster and faster and faster in fear and agitation, pounding so hard he felt that surely it and all his blood vessels would burst. He tried to scream...  
  
_"GABRIEL!"_  
  
In instants he was sitting up, breathing hard. He was back on the ship, in his bed. Anna was sitting at his side, looking very worried.  
  
"What happened? Are you alright? Were you the one calling my name?" He fired rapidly.  
  
"I don't know, I'm fine, and yes I've been calling you for ages!" She said with a little exasperation. "You were tossing and turning all night, so violently I was afraid you'd hurt yourself. And sometimes you'd cry out strange things..."  
  
"I kept you up all night?" Van Helsing asked quietly.  
  
"Yes. But it's alright. My brother and I never slept much anyway after Father went missing." She said reassuringly. It was then he noticed that she was holding his hand tightly. Pulling his hand out of her grasp, he looked at her hand. It was red, and showed the early signs of bruising.  
  
"I'm sorry if I hurt your hand." He mumbled, resting his face in his hands.  
  
"It's no matter." She dismissed. All was quiet for a while, until Anna spoke up again. "Perhaps you should come outside and get some sun and food, wake up a little more. We'll dock today and you need your strength."  
  
"Alright, I'll eat. But I won't share my food with you. It never looks as good on you as it does on the plate..." He trailed off, standing and pulling on his boots then leaving the room with a furiously blushing Anna.

* * *

The nightmare incident seemed wholly forgotten the rest of the day; they were due to dock at sunset. Anna had now overcome her seasickness to the point of being able to carry on a conversation as long as she hadn't eaten recently, and they took full advantage of this fact by whiling away the time with jokes and tales.  
  
But soon the times of fun were past and they arrived in a small port. Now the two seasoned warriors grew grim as they picked up enough food for two weeks and then went to pick up horses: two magnificent black steeds. Mounting up, they could not help but look to each other.  
  
"Transylvanian horses." Van Helsing remarked, patting his horse's withers.  
  
"May they bear us to better fortune than the last time we rode their kind." Anna intoned.  
  
"I'll drink to that." Van Helsing replied fervently, putting his boots into the horse's flanks. And then they were off, towards the Carpathian Mountains.  
  
In all his studying of Carl's notes, Van Helsing had been unable to pinpoint the exact location of the Wavewriter. All it said was that it was high up in the Carpathian Mountains that bordered Transylvania. At first he had thought to actually enter Transylvania itself and try and find a way from there, or at least more information, but he grew impatient. This Wavewriter sounded like something big, something important. Once in the mountains, how hard would it be to find?  
  
But they wandered long into the night and still there was no sign of any such thing. Winter was at its end, and seemed vengeful for it; it stirred up a tempestuous blizzard as a sort of temper tantrum, and the ice crystals bit hard into their cheeks and eyes. They were forced to dismount and lead their horses, holding each other's hands so as not to be lost in the storm. Hardening his resolve, Van Helsing pressed higher into the mountains and ignored the icy cold. Anna ignored it as well, but couldn't help thinking Van Helsing mad. They could so easily become lost in these mountains, it would be better to stop and rest. She didn't want him to think her weak, but someone had to be the voice of reason.  
  
"Van Helsing!" She screamed, tugging at his hand. He turned to her. "This is dangerous, we should stop!" Her voice grew hoarse from the strain of shouting over the storm.  
  
Van Helsing looked around himself and then back at Anna. Against her will, she was trembling. He looked at himself and saw he was doing the same thing. For a long time now the horses had been whinnying pitifully and shaking themselves. Both his and Anna's faces were raw from the biting wind and he couldn't feel her hand in his. Unless they wished to join Carl, it certainly was time to stop. But, in glancing further up the snowy slope, he saw a small stand of trees on a plateau, nestled into the curve of the mountain. It looked secure.  
  
"Alright, but let's journey up to those trees." He hollered back. Anna nodded and they pressed on.  
  
Once they reached the trees, they nearly collapsed with relief. It certainly seemed quieter here, more secluded from the banshee wind and crazy, white world outside. The air was, if possible, even keener, biting at your lungs as you drew it in. It felt different than the air outside. The trees were gutted by the wind and nearly shorn of their branches, but they didn't seem in a hurry to be torn out or knocked over. they were old and strong, and this was their home. It was pretty interesting how they were arranged, almost in a perfect circle. But a few were too close to their neighbor or too far out or too far in. Then again, nothing is perfect.  
  
They each staggered to a tree and tethered their horse. The exhausted animals lay down in the snow and commenced sleeping, proof of how tired they were since horses don't normally sleep lying down. Anna immediately curled up against he horse, covering the rest of her body with a cloak. Van Helsing knew she was asleep and that he should be too, but he couldn't help pacing. Where, where in those godforsaken mountains was the Wavewriter?  
  
_Whole damn world is godforsaken._ He thought bitterly to himself, pulling his cloak and coat close about him. _I think_ _God went out for tea a couple centuries ago and forgot to mention it to us mere mortals.  
_  
He thought to get out Carl's notes and the book of Romanian Myths to see if he could discover anything new from actually being at the place, but fear of losing the precious articles to the raging storm prevented him from it. Would that he had been more careful with Carl himself...  
  
In a rage nearly equaling the wrath of the storm, he continued to pace and mentally rant until he could take it no more and collapsed into the snow near his horse, staring at the tree. His fire was consuming him, making him want to fold in on himself. Was there really hope after all? He blinked sleepily and was about to drift off when he saw something in the bark.  
  
_YOU'RE LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACE_.  
  
There the words were, scratched neatly in as though with a knife. But when he blinked again, they were gone as though they had never even been. Another blink brought a new message.  
  
_YOU CAN'T FIND IT UNTIL YOU ARE READY_.  
  
Then, slowly, the words began to MELT away, into sap. The sap wrote out, in glistening letters:  
  
_ GO TO BUDAPEST. BEGIN THERE.  
_  
And then, once more, the words were gone without a trace.  
  
Van Helsing curled up against his horse and wrapped his cloak around him, but still couldn't find sleep. What had been the meaning of that? How had it appeared? He wanted to mistrust it, but something in him was comforted by the appearance of those messages. Maybe the world wasn't as godforsaken as he had thought. Maybe someone out there was trying to help him.  
  
As sleep finally took him into its arms, Gabriel resolved it. They would head for Budapest in the morning. But that night, he had nightmares to contend with... especially that haunting echo: _Gabriel..._ _Gabriel... Gabriel....  
_

* * *

Anna was shocked but relieved to awaken to news of where they were going. Their path had been completely aimless the night before, but as she stepped out of the circle into the clean morning air and looked down, she realized she knew where they were. After a little backtracking, she could lead them out of the mountains and to Budapest.  
  
It took until nightfall to get to their destination, and upon arriving in the place where Dracula had held his masquerade ball not so long ago, Van Helsing realized he had no idea where to go after this. The mysterious message had told him to start here, but _where_ here? Well, he might as well establish a 'base camp.'  
  
"Let's go find an inn to stay at. The Order always gives me enough for lodgings." He told Anna as they walked their horses through the town. People, what few were out after dark, scuttled quickly out of their way. Suspicious faces watched them from the windows. "You'd think they were still living in Dracula's shadow. Tell me, is a Romanian town just not Romanian if everyone isn't quivering in fear?"  
  
"Well, we've lived in 'Dracula's shadow' for so long we don't know anything else. We have always had reason to fear, because if it isn't Dracula, it's some other legendary creature that happens to be real. Werewolves aren't that uncommon, and there is still the threat of vampires." Anna replied indifferently.  
  
"But all the ones sired by Dracula will be dead. That had to take a chunk out of the population." Van Helsing frowned.  
  
"Yes, but some second-generation ones may have lived." Was the Princess's reply.  
  
"Second-generation?"  
  
"My family was always concerned that even if we killed Dracula, some of those in his bloodline a little further removed might still live. For example, if he sired someone and then they sired someone, the third vampire would be Dracula's grandchild. The blood might be diluted enough for them to survive Dracula's death." Anna reasoned. "And keep in mind, no one arrives after nightfall here."   
  
"Except for us, apparently. Look, here's a decent inn. Let's get lodgings here." He motioned to a two story building on their left with attached stables. They tied their horses up outside and entered the building.  
  
A low murmur of conversation, the scent of burning wood and tobacco, and the soft glow of firelight greeted them. A moderate crowd was there that night, leaving most of the tables filled. But there were two seats at the bar, where the owner was quietly cleaning mugs or serving the customers gathering around him. The pair moved forward and took the two available stools, waiting until they were served.  
  
"He won't help you find what you seek." said a soft, feminine voice to Gabriel's left.   
  
He turned rapidly to see a cloaked figure seated there, delicate fingers toying with the wine goblet in her hands. She lifted her face, just enough to give him a glance of it; its features were fair and white, with ruby lips and dark, inviting eyes. A waterfall of wavy golden hair spilled over her black cloak and onto her shoulder.  
  
"Excuse me?" He asked gruffly. She laughed in her throat and tossed off her hood with lazy grace. She was stunning to behold, Van Helsing discovered. But her dark eyes and the wry curve of her full lips did not give an impression of innocence.  
  
"The bartender. He doesn't have what you seek." She reiterated.  
  
"Do we know you?" Anna butted in, poking her head out from around Van Helsing. Suspicion was all over her face.  
  
"Who _can_ help me?" Van Helsing asked the strange woman, ignoring Anna for the moment.  
  
"Well, I of course." She laughed merrily. The sound captivated him, and he found his mind falling into her dark eyes, like the void in his dreams. The ghostly echo of his name being called rang in his ears.  
  
"Who are you?" Van Helsing asked slowly.  
  
"Does it matter?" She countered, taking a sip of her wine. "The ends justify the means, no?"  
  
"Indeed." He said in the same, uncertain voice.  
  
"Ahh, you do not trust me. And wisely, as I do not trust you. There must be something we can do to alleviate this..." She lay one slender finger on the side of her jaw and tipped her head to one side as though deep in thought. "Aha!" She clapped her hands. "I know what you can do that shall help both you and I."  
  
"I'm going to go check on the horses." Anna murmured, standing and walking away. There were traces of hurt in her voice.  
  
"Anna!" Van Helsing called after her, but she didn't respond.  
  
"She doesn't matter for now, Gabriel." The other woman replied quietly. "It is better that she is gone, since you so obviously don't want her to know what you have been up to."  
  
"How do you know my name?" Van Helsing growled. People who knew his name yet he had never met before weren't good in his book.  
  
"The same way I know your purpose here. You seek the Wavewriter." She said simply.  
  
"How can I find it?" He asked as she drank from her goblet.  
  
"Tut, not now!" She chided, shaking a finger. "You are not ready yet. You must prove yourself." Van Helsing rested his elbow on the counter.  
  
"I'm listening." He said.  
  
"Good, that's helpful." She purred. "Nearby here, in a forest, is a nest of vampires. They have been plaguing nearby villages and towns for a while now, and they irk me. But, alas, I can do nothing. Kill them for me. Then meet me here. I give you as much time as you need... I shall know when the task is done and you return. Do you accept?"  
  
"You're going to help me find the Wavewriter in exchange for this?" Van Helsing asked.  
  
"Well, we shall see when you return. you must trust me, Gabriel. Trust is hard to establish but easily broken... I cannot offer my service unless you trust me." She said gently, in almost maternal tones.  
  
"Very well. I don't see how killing things can gain someone's trust, but I'll do it." He replied. She giggled and clapped her hands.  
  
"Good then! I shall see you when you have finished!" She said with girlish glee. Then she pulled her hood over her face and walked out the door into the night.   
  
Van Helsing sighed and stood as well. He needed to go talk to Anna about this so they could decide when to leave, but she likely wasn't happy. She hadn't seemed it when he had started his conversation with the mystery woman. When he found her, she was with their two horses, talking to them quietly, stroking their muzzles. He approached her from behind.  
  
"Anna?" He called quietly into the still night air. She turned to him briefly before returning to the horses.  
  
"Have you gotten us rooms?" She asked in a monotone, not meeting his gaze as he leaned against the post they had tied their horses to.  
  
"No, not yet. I received some interesting information... there is a vampire nest associated with the cult we are looking for. The cult themselves are very elusive, so destroying their resources might be the best method of flushing them out. That's what the woman was telling me." Now Anna's eyes flew to meet his.   
  
She had, of course, been nervous and jealous when the gorgeous but strange woman had begun talking with Van Helsing. It was obvious that she was everything Anna was not; the golden hair, the seductive manner, the way she held herself, drank from her goblet, her dark eyes beckoning Van Helsing into their depths... Anna wasn't afraid that this temptress could be a demon, Van Helsing would know what to do with one of those. But what if it was just a regular woman? And what if she captivated Gabriel? Jealousy and hurt, over a man at least, were new emotions to the gypsy Princess, and their power had overwhelmed her so she had left him to his fate. But if she was just an informant...  
  
"So that's why you were talking to that woman at the bar?" Anna asked with imperfect nonchalance, picking at an invisible thread on her shirt.  
  
"Yes. She was... a contact of the Order's." Van Helsing supplied.  
  
"Oh. Alright then. Shall we leave?" She asked brightly.  
  
"No, let's get a room and rest the night. We'll need our strength to fight the nest tomorrow." Van Helsing replied. With mock bravado, he offered his arm to Anna. She took it, and he could not help but smile inwardly at the relief on her face she thought she was concealing.

* * *

A/N-- In case ya can't tell, I've been listening to ROTK soundtrack... since 'Hope and Shadow' was a play on 'Hope and Memory' and this one is directly from the album. Okay, hope yall enjoyed that chapter!! We get some monster fighting in the next one... And that means you get more M&M's if ya review, cuz I hand those out with the action chapters!!! 


	20. Chapter 19: A Series of Downfalls

A/N-- Wheeeee!!! Verona has been in a good mood all day!!!!!!! Kudos to my reviewers!!  
  
**pequeño señoretta**()- I'm glad you enjoy this story... It's nice to be thanked for writing it.  
**HealerAriel**- Whew, I was afraid people wouldn't like Anna's insecurity... And enjoy those M&M's.  
**HyperCaz()-** Take as much sugar as ya like! I need happy reviewers! The romance might sort itself out for a while.... but I'm a nasty person and I like upsetting romances:-) We'll see how it plays out.  
**japanesegirl101**- I'm happy you enjoy the plot... it seems to have materialized on its own. I have no idea where it comes from! And yes... --tear, tear-- I miss Dracula too...  
**Dare()-** I thought the unknown woman was a nice twist, yet another complication to the Gabriel/Anna. And no, she's not _really_ a contact of the Order's... she woulda had to kill Van Helsing on sight if she was, due to the Cardinal's orders. And Gabriel was just making that up to perpetuate his lie... naughty boy that he is. I should think that you should be getting _more_ hopeful for Carl to come back. I mean really... sit back and take in all the stuff that happened last chapter. --hint, hint, wink, wink--  
**salamander()-** Wow, you peoples are violent! I'll try and work it into the plot...  
**Anthem82()-** Yes, the plot is thickening... INTO CHOCOLATE!! Sorry, I'm really hyper and I'm having too much fun writing this fight scene... Wow, my story is loved!!! Thanks!!!  
**Allora()-** Anna does get to do some butt-kicking in this chapter, but not against who you're thinking of. And no problem with the M&M's, I've got tons of 'em lying around here!  
**Doris()-** Who took Carl's body?! Wha...? I'm confused. Carl's body is back at the Vatican, probably being buried. I dunno where you got the idea that someone took it...  
I was really happy with the whole dream sequence as well... now you know why it's called RIPPLES in Time!  
Well, she was MEANT to be freaky! I was afraid that Anna came off a little OOC, but for some bizarre reason, that's the way I wrote it!!  
More cookies...? --hopeful grin--  
  
Lil' closing note here... I'm not sure if vampires can be killed with silver bullets, but if they die of silver stakes it makes sense doesn't it? Oh well, they can now be killed by silver bullets!

* * *

Chapter 19:  
A Series of Downfalls  
  
Both Hunters were refreshed and ready to go, come morning. It felt good to have a sense of purpose, even if it meant just knowing what they were going to kill that day. They woke around the same time, stretched, asked how the other slept. Both said they slept well, although Van Helsing was still haunted by that voice that so insistently called his name. But the dream hadn't been frightening enough to awaken him or Anna, so he dismissed it as a lingering demon from some mission.  
  
Upon asking around town, they discovered the location of the forest the mystery woman had told them to search for the nest in. A few helpful villagers even ventured to guess, based on where they attacked from, where their lair was located. No one could say how many there were, however.  
  
"Guess we'll just be surprised then eh?" Van Helsing mused out loud as he and Anna walked away from one such conversation. They were carrying all their usual weapons, and the crisp briskness of the air that day made them feel alert and ready to go.  
  
"Should we go on foot or not? I'm just worried about taking the horses into the forest." Anna asked as they headed for the inn. There seemed to be a mutual agreement that they had gotten all the information they could and were ready to go.  
  
"They'll be fine." He dismissed. "We may need them for a getaway."  
  
"The great Van Helsing, worrying about an escape?" She queried with mock astonishment.  
  
"The great Anna Valerious, growing overly cocky?" He mocked her right back as they reached the stable.  
  
"You didn't seem too worried either going in to Castle Dracula." She reminded him as they were tacking their horses. She was praying she hadn't struck a soft spot there.  
  
"I had werewolf venom pumping through my veins. I was ready to take on the world." He countered as he was cinching his horse's saddle.  
  
"And you aren't right now?" She asked, already mounting. He swung up beside her and they walked their mounts out of the barn.  
  
"Well, not really, no." He shook his head and fiddled with the reins a little as they waited outside. Anna was watching him carefully. There was something about the way he had said that, the little flash in his eyes she had seen right before he looked down, that made her wonder... "But I am ready to take on you." He grinned devilishly, spurring his horse into a gallop.  
  
"That's cheating!" She shouted delightedly after him as she spurred her own horse.  
  
They raced along, the wind through their hair and wiping the dust off their fighting spirits. They rode along with it, back and forth, like a game. Sometimes she was ahead, sometimes he was. Sometimes they rode neck and neck, taunting each other. But they slowly ended their game at a tie as the forest glowered up ahead, coming to a complete stop at its eaves.  
  
"Looks promisingly dark enough." Anna remarked, sliding off her mare.   
  
Van Helsing said nothing as he dismounted, concentrating on sensing out evil. There was a whisper of it here and there, little notes littered carelessly among the shadowed leaves. He crept closer to the forest, cautiously taking in every detail. He found a stronger thread as he brushed a tree and returned his special sense to it; the thread built into a strong, thick rope that trailed into the forest. He motioned for Anna to follow him and looked now to the forest floor. A trail of blood, thin and made of irregular splatters, was following the same path as his sense. He pointed it out to Anna and then they moved on.  
  
The trail of blood and Van Helsing's sixth sense led them along the outskirts of the forest, which was comforting but strange. It kept them always near the sunlight. If Gabriel didn't have a link between the evil and the blood, they might've thought it was just a wounded animal. But the link was there, thriving. It made more sense as both trails turned sharply inward, into the forest.  
  
"I think they may have been carrying the victim, or dragging them, back to their lair." Van Helsing stated quietly as they continued to stalk through the close trees.  
  
"Look up there!" Anna called softly, pointing to a tree branch far above their heads. Tangled in the thick pine leaves and dripping over the captured snow was blood and a torn sleeve. Now a new trail of blood shadowed the one they had been following. "Looks like they were hungry last night."  
  
"We still don't know how many there are though. They might not have gone out all at once." Van Helsing said as they continued on. "Hopefully, they'll be sleeping like good little bloodsuckers when we get there."  
  
They were 'there' surprisingly soon. 'There' was a small, raised lump of land surrounded by trees. At the front end of this bizarre lump was a hole just big enough for one to slide down. Blood was congealing in a pool outside of it; its scent wafted up out of the lair as they grew near. After walking around the little hill twice, they could still see no other way of going in. As Van Helsing prepared to slide down the hole, Anna stopped him.  
  
"Shouldn't we look in first, make sure we know what we're sliding into?" She asked.  
  
"Cocky no more I see." Van Helsing grunted as he pulled himself back onto the flat forest floor. "Hold on to my ankles please." He sighed as he lay down on his stomach. Once he felt Anna take hold of his ankles, he began to slither into the hole.  
  
It was dank and dark, but very smooth. As he got a little further down, he could smell the blood more easily. Just as he was lying flat out, he saw that the passageway curved to his right and he could see no more. Evil was stronger here, certainly. Laughter could be heard echoing softly up towards him, but he could not tell how close or far away the vampires might be. He decided to get himself back up and tell Anna before deciding when and how to go down.  
  
Slowly but surely, he began to push himself back out of the tunnel. Anna helped by pulling on his ankles. But as the bottom half of his body materialized out of the gloom and he was ready to fully pull himself out, he put his hand in one of the puddles of blood and tried to push himself backwards.  
  
Wrong move.  
  
He slid and jolted forward; Anna, still holding onto his ankles, was sent tumbling too. She cried out as she fell and slammed into the side of the hill, landing in a crouch. She struggled to pull herself and Gabriel back up, but slid in the blood slick grass, losing her footing. Now both she and Van Helsing were sliding down through the wet darkness.  
  
It was a fast and smooth ride, although they did hit their heads as they hit the curve that had stopped Van Helsing's exploration. After that it was smooth again, and wider, spilling out finally into a large stone room. They landed in a crumpled heap, blood and dirt covering their faces and clothes. After blushing and untangling their limbs, they stood up and began to dust off their faces. The room was lit by torches, and extended high above them; its irregularly domed roof must've been the hill outside. A hall branched off of it, also lit with torches, and curved away from them.  
  
Slowly, they approached its entrance, but could see nothing without going in further. Traveling along, the torches grew dimmer, until they finally disappeared and they were left in darkness. _Probably so that only members of their kind could get through..._ Van Helsing thought. Well, he had a fondness for crashing the private parties of vampires anyhow.  
  
"Take my hand. We'll have to feel our way through." He whispered to Anna. She complied, and they continued on.  
  
It was a bizarre odyssey of the senses, their journey. The wall would constantly go from rough to smooth to slick to dry, and the floor would at times be irregular or made of dirt. Sight was gone from them, since all that could be seen was black. Sound was dead too, since there was nothing but their footsteps. All they could do was feel their way along the wall and hold onto each other's hands, praying they wouldn't get lost. It was blind faith in its purest form.  
  
But even faith can sometimes falter, and theirs did. Gabriel was in the lead, and constantly looking from side to side out of paranoia. Despite his healthy watchfulness, vain as it was in the dark, he neglected to look down. This was why he slipped in the blood, tripped over the body, hit the wall, and sent both himself and Anna tumbling down the incline in the path. For the second time that day, they ended up on top of each other. If they had blushed any harder, it would've become visible as a faint glow in the dark.  
  
"We really need to stop falling for each other." Anna's accented voice whispered in the dark. Despite her weak and breathless words, she did not get up from her position atop Van Helsing.  
  
"Agreed." He sighed, standing and lifting her up too.   
  
They had landed in a very boxy room and almost hit a very smooth wall. On this wall was a door adorned by light and the sound of cackling. Instantaneously, the two Monster Hunters froze. With soundless grace, they crept over to the door and stood on either side, looking in from the corner of their eyes.  
  
The room revealed was large and opulent, draped in rich silks and velvets and lit by a multitude of ensconced torches that cast pastel glows through the draperies. A huge line of buffet tables went down the center of the room, covered in nearly every food and drink imaginable. Both gaped, shocked at the grandeur of the room and at all the food.  
  
"What would _vampires_ want with all that food?" Van Helsing muttered.  
  
"Can you see any of them?" Anna whispered back.  
  
"No. Can you?"  
  
"No."  
  
Perturbed, Van Helsing settled down to watch and wait. He could sense the evil literally vibrating off of the walls and floors of the room, but he couldn't see any of the vampires.  
  
This didn't look good.

* * *

Yinette could not help but giggle hysterically. Torture was always so much fun! She did not even mind when it was practiced upon her own body, immortal as it was. But this, this torture was far more subtle. Torture of the mind...  
  
She and her three companions (her mate, Terryn, and her sister Ashleen and her mate Nevoar) had attacked and terrorized the small village barely hours ago and dragged back a victim each for their meal, as they had been doing for a few months now. Honestly, why the stupid humans didn't just _leave_ was far beyond her. They should know when to bend, or else they might break. She thought to herself. But it really didn't matter... she loved their howls, the warmth of their blood coursing down her throat, the abject horror in their eyes, frozen for eternity, when she flung their drained corpses to the ground. Another gleeful cackle escaped from her lips as she fell against one of the buffet tables.  
  
"Terryn!" Ashleen whined from her place in the corner with Nevoar. "Silence her hysteria before we rip her throat out!"  
  
"You already did that to your latest victim love. Shouldn't be repetitive." Nevoar reminded her, gesturing to the body on the floor. Ashleen had indeed ripped his throat out when she had finished feeding, tossing him next to Nevoar's kill. Terryn's had struggled on the way down to the lair, and they had been forced to kill him and leave him there.  
  
"Don't be so vicious Ashleen." Yinette said with sudden coldness. "You were my sister in life and I saw fit, after I became a part of Count Dracula's bloodline, to make you one of my own. You owe me eternal life." Ashleen merely growled low in response.  
  
"Hush Yinette. They just don't understand your genius." Terryn whispered in her ear, kissing her shoulder lightly. The cackle started anew, but much lower this time. She had always been on the strange side, even in life, but vampirism had pushed her over the edge. After she'd fed, she'd go into the strangest fits of laughter and then howls, often gorging herself on blood and wine until someone managed to stop her. But, as he had in life, he loved her and couldn't bear to leave her. Ashleen and Nevoar would say differently however.  
  
"Yes. My genius." Yinette purred, moving to her victim. He was in his mid-thirties perhaps, rather small and wiry man. Before he may have been stalwart, always standing up to the vampire attacks, but an hour or two of flight and then torture with Yinette had quickly broken him. He trembled at her approach. "Oh hush kitten. Mama's here now." (A/N-- Drusilla rocks!!!) She crooned to him, running one cold porcelain hand along his cheek.   
  
She had him hanging from the ceiling with chains, his feet just an inch above the floor, and staring at the buffet tables. Upon the event of his capture, she had made sure to do to him what would easily make him throw up any sustenance he had eaten in the last few hours, and now that food was starting to look very good. Noticing him eying the food, she formed her crimson lips into a perfect 'oh' and turned around. Her dark locks shadowed her face eerily as she picked up a small cake with two fingers. Slowly, she began to eat it, making sure to stand very close to him as she did.  
  
"Look at all this food, precious. And what a waste, going to me. I can't taste it anymore." She shook her head sadly, pouting. Then she looked up eagerly, her eyes alight. "But you have something that I can taste..." Yinette leaned in, opening her mouth. Her fangs grazed ever-so-slightly along his neck, giving him chills of terror as two razor-thin lines of blood were drawn on his jugular. "But I do not hunger now. I shall have to amuse myself in other ways..." She began to happily shred some of the food, tossing it all around her and giggling maniacally. As her rapture reached its peak, a noise was heard. It was the sound of something hitting the floor just outside the open door. All four vampires froze; Terryn automatically put one hand over his mate's victim's mouth to stifle any cries for help and one over the mouth of his laughing mate. In the stillness, their senses could hear sounds:  
  
"We really need to stop falling for each other."  
  
"Agreed."  
  
In a silent pact, the vampires swiftly scrambled up the walls. Terryn released Yinette long enough to fly her victim up to the wall and clamp him in the shackles they kept there. She remained on the ground while Ashleen and Nevoar hid in their corner and Terryn hid her victim. Slowly, she swayed back and forth to some inaudible song.  
  
"Yinette!" Terryn hissed, grabbing her by the waist and carrying her up the wall with him.  
  
"Someone's come to play." She crooned quietly to herself, flattening up against the ceiling beside her victim.  
  
After that all four fell silent, not twitching a single muscle. But it was strange... The reek of human was thick all around them, they were obviously close and on a mission, but they could not be seen. They were obviously experienced enough to not go charging into a nest of vampires.  
  
That was not good.  
  
But wait, why were they afraid of two puny humans? Trained or not, the intruders were two mortals. They were four immortal vampires who had just fed. The odds were _slightly_ in their favor, and at that time Terryn had an idea that might give them even more of an edge.  
  
He was not as crazy as Yinette, but they had one thing in common; they both loved to play with their prey.

* * *

Van Helsing was beginning to have serious doubts about his innate sixth sense. They had sat at the doorway for five minutes, and while something in him was screaming in his head that the vampires were right in that room, he had been unable to see them. He sighed and was about to tell Anna that they probably weren't in there when she interrupted him.  
  
"Look!" She cried quietly. Van Helsing complied and saw that on one side of the buffet tables was a sorely beaten man, held up only by some chains that connected to the ceiling. "How did we not see him before?"  
  
"I don't know." He replied. Part of him was still screaming _Don't go in there!_ But he forced himself to dismiss it. _You're getting paranoid, Gabriel._. He reassured himself, walking into the room with Anna at his heels.

* * *

Hook, line and sinker. All four vampires smiled widely from their positions on the ceiling as the two cautious humans entered the room and slowly approached the prisoner, whom they had knocked out for good measure. One, the man, was quickly trying to find a way to get the prisoner out of his shackles, while the woman was standing guard seemingly, turning in a slow circle with a pistol cocked and ready. She seemed unsure of her surroundings.  
  
_With good reason_. Terryn told himself. As the woman's eyes slowly drifted upward, they swooped down with unholy screeches.

* * *

Anna knew there wasn't something right with the room, knew it in her soul. But she could see nothing as she turned in a slow circle, pistol held at the ready. And Van Helsing seemed jittery too. But, she figured, nothing would happen unless they made it happen.  
  
They had definitely made something happen, she decided as the four vampires swooped down.  
  
She fired immediately before flinging herself to the ground. One black-haired female and another sandy-haired male narrowly missed her; the female landed and changed into her human form, the bullet wound in her shoulder healing instantly. Anna looked to her; there was a devilish and certainly not sane look upon her face. The male transformed as well and stood behind her.  
  
Van Helsing had barely been able to duck as a vampiress with dark brown hair and a blonde vampire dove down on him. As he flung himself to the ground, out came the Tojo blades. One managed to catch the wing of the swooping vampire; he hissed and wheeled around, landing gracefully on one of the buffet tables. The vampiress, however, was ready for another round. She swooped down at him again, (remember, this is a fairly large room) claws extended, only to receive a vicious cut with the Tojo blade across her arm. Hissing, she landed in a crouch beside the vampire he had previously wounded.  
  
Anna rolled and sprang to her feet, effectively avoiding a second strike from the female and getting into position to fire at the male as he leapt across the table at her. The bullet hit home in his chest, not killing him but knocking him backwards onto the buffet table. Holstering her pistol, she drew the silver stake that Gabriel had given to her and was ready to stake the dazed vampire when she heard an unholy screech from behind her; next thing she knew, she was being flung over the buffet table and crashing to the ground on the other side. Warm blood trickled down her back from the punctures made by the angered vampiress' claws, but she was back on her feet and ready to meet the next attack. The woman was quickly back in human form, and crouched protectively over her recovering mate, fangs bared.  
  
Van Helsing soon had his pistols in hand, armed with silver bullets, and fired off two shots rapidly at the vampires. They scattered to avoid them, but the woman was fast on her feet and attacking Van Helsing with a knife from the table. One pistol knocked away the blow, while the other fired into her ribcage. She screeched and dashed away, but the male was quickly there in her place, grabbing Van Helsing's wrists and trying to fling him away towards the buffet table. He succeeded, but as he flung him Van Helsing fired twice at the vampiress, leaping downward at him from the side. One bullet hit her in the shoulder, the other dead on in the heart. Instead of her body crashing down on him, it was her ashes. The knife that had been in her hand dropped right next to Van Helsing's neck, its edge drawing a small line of blood on his skin.  
  
The vampiress Anna had been fighting shrieked awfully, clutching her stomach.  
  
_"Ashleen!"_ She howled mournfully.  
  
"You vampires always have the weirdest names..." Anna muttered to herself, darting forward with the silver stake.   
  
Even grief-stricken as she was, the vampiress leapt to Anna's side, almost landing a punch on her shoulder. But Anna's arm was there to block the blow and hold the striking arm high. Once more the stake plunged down towards the vampiress' black heart, until she kicked out and sent Anna stumbling backwards, right into the waiting arms of the vampire she had earlier wounded. He roughly turned her, fangs bared, and was about to bite into her neck until she full on embraced him... giving her leave to plunge the stake right into his back. Soon all she held in her arms was ash and dust.  
  
_"Terryn__!"_ The same vampiress screeched in anguish, now holding her head.  
  
The vampire Van Helsing had been fighting was screaming in anger too. His sire and mate and his blood uncle had been killed in a few brutal moments. White hot fury flooded his body and he pounced on Van Helsing, ready to tear him to shreds. But the Monster Hunter was able to hold his shredding claws at bay, able to roll the demonic man over and off him. He reached for the knife behind him and plunged it downward onto the vampire's arms in a fluid motion as he rolled, hearing it strike the wood of the table after passing through the arm. His enemy howled and snarled, removing the knife with a lightening fast jerk and stabbing Van Helsing's leg with it. He followed up the strike with an impressive punch as he launched himself back onto his feet and sent Van Helsing colliding with the wall.  
  
Anna was facing a similar problem; a very angry vampiress. After overcoming her grief, she transformed and flew at Anna, chest level. Making the best of the situation, Anna dropped to the floor and then used a sort of rolling kick to send the flying white bat-like creature into the nearby wall. She was then back on her feet, pistol aimed to kill. The vampiress was back in human form, pressed against the wall. She hissed and crawled further up it as Anna fired, then back flipped off. Now she held a sword taken from the wall and was lunging at Anna with a fierce howl; the gypsy princess could do little more than leap to the side and fall to the ground. Lying there, she flung her pistol away and drew her own sword, but she could not regain her feet before the vampiress was upon her, sword cutting down viciously through the air. Braced against the ground, she caught the blow, then disengaged her weapon and lunged onto her feet, sword extended. The vampiress backed up and smiled wickedly.  
  
"This little bitch has fangs..." She purred. With inhuman prowess, she screamed and launched herself at Anna, sword poised for a downward strike. The ensuing force had both crushed against the wall, the flat of Anna's blade pressed against her throat and the vampiress' sword off to the side. Fangs bared, she hissed at the gypsy.  
  
"I may have fangs, but I'm sure they look a lot better on me than yours look on you." She spat. It took all the muscle in her arm to force her sword outward and then up, carrying her opponent's blade high above her head. This movement was followed up with a strong side kick into the bloodsucker's stomach.  
  
Van Helsing could feel the blood pumping down his leg in red waves but couldn't do anything about it as his vampire transformed and flew at him. The only way of dodging the strike was grabbing his wrists as he grew closer and using his momentum to fling him away; even that didn't quite work because of his wings. But it was enough to get Van Helsing away from the wall. Backing up swiftly, he raised his remaining pistol (one had been knocked out of his hands in the action) and fired three rapid shots as the vampire pursued him. One hit him in the wing, one in the shoulder, and the third missed entirely as he overtook the Hunter.  
  
The wind was knocked out of Van Helsing as the claws of his attacker slammed into him, cutting through his shirt and drawing blood. Now he was in the vampire's claws and heading swiftly for the wall to be pinned there like a decorative insect.  
  
But not without a fight.  
  
Mere feet from the said wall, he fired again. This time, close as he was, the bullet struck home. There was a wild shriek and dust was all around him, and then he fell four feet to the ground, once more breathless.  
  
The remaining vampire and Anna had been whirling across the floor in a cage of metal, neither giving an inch. First blood went to the vampiress, who slashed Anna's upper arm. This same woman, fierce as a tiger, froze in her duel as her remaining fellow died. Another wordless howl of anger and grief rose up from her throat, a keening cry that cut through the air like a blade. It was then that a blade cut through her stomach, bringing her back to reality.  
  
If possible, she fought more fiercely than ever, her blows falling so hard down upon Anna's sword that the blades rang and whined, sparking and shivering. Even the brave Anna began to fear for her life as she grew quicker too, leaping from side to side, circling her, running off of walls, screeching all the while. It was a chaotic dance, one danced to the beat of a broken heart. A beat Anna could not keep pace with.  
  
Before she could acknowledge it, Anna's sword was gone from her hand and clattering to the floor. A powerful blow sent her reeling to join it, coughing up blood. Her world was spinning all around her, but suddenly righted itself as the vampiress flung her sword away and lifted Anna, one handed, by her throat. A deranged grin spread across her face as she began to choke her, slowly crushing her windpipe.   
  
And loving every second of it.

* * *

Everything had been taken from her. Everything. In a few brief stroke's, Yinette's whole world had simply gone 'poof' and fluttered away on gossamer wings. She had thought she could feel no more, after twenty years of being a vampire, but now she could feel too much. Anger. Pain. Frustration. Confusion. A strange bit of joy. Heartache. _Strange that a heart that does not beat can ache._ She mused to herself as she continued to crush the struggling woman's throat. _Your hands beating my arm and your feet kicking my stomach are nothing to me. I am already in more pain than you can dream of.   
_  
There was a whistling noise and then a wet thud. Yinette jerked and felt her muscles go slack. The woman, nearly unconscious now, dropped to the floor and began to cough so hard she shook. But Yinette had far worse problems: a silver stake through her heart.  
  
She stumbled backwards, into the wall. Her eyes, completely dilated with fear, roved everywhere but saw nothing. All was fading into darkness...

* * *

The vampire froze, impaled on the stake Gabriel Van Helsing had thrown at her. Blood gurgled weirdly in her throat, bubbling out of her mouth and down her white neck. She was trying to scream, he realized. He pitied her; no one would scream her name, whatever it had been, in anguish. She could not even scream for herself. They had taken everything from her. There was no one left to give her a keening lament, not even herself. Soundlessly, she burst to ash and dust.  
  
Van Helsing quickly limped around the buffet tables to Anna's side. She was just now struggling to her feet, still coughing weakly with her hands at her throat. When she removed them, he could already see the beginnings of ugly purple bruises.  
  
"How badly are you hurt?" He panted, resting his hand on his injured leg.  
  
"I'll live." She gasped out. "You?"  
  
"I'll live." He replied.   
  
While Anna continued to recover, he went to each pile of dust and crossed himself, murmuring a prayer Latin. Once he was done, he returned to Anna's side.  
  
"Let's free the prisoner and then get out of here. We better hope that that was all the vampires in the nest." He told her. Still feeling a bit beyond speech, she merely nodded and they went to the imprisoned man. He was awake now, and very frightened.  
  
"I am in your debt sir." He said in a trembling voice as Van Helsing approached.  
  
"Repay it by holding still." The Vampire Hunter sighed, the Tojo blades slipping out of his sleeves. He activated them then cut through the tough iron chains. "I don't know if it's wise of me to attempt the actual shackles with these. Once you get home I'm sure you can get them off." The man agreed and together the three left the nest.  
  
Climbing out wasn't very hard. There was only one hallway to and from the actual lair, and there were grooves in the stone slide they had earlier slid down that made it rather simple to get back up, even with their injuries. But once they were outside, Van Helsing froze every muscle in his body. Anna and the prisoner, up ahead, stopped and turned to him.  
  
"Is something wrong, Gabriel?" Anna inquired. "Are you hurt?"  
  
"No." He sighed heavily. "I just realized how undignified I'm going to look walking back into town with cake icing all over my back."

* * *

Eventually, Van Helsing got over his mortification of walking into town with cake icing all over his back and returned to the inn. By that time, it was late afternoon. After taking off his soiled coat, bandaging his wounds, eating a huge, hot meal, and cleaning his coat, he happily fell asleep in his bed.  
  
When he awoke again, it was nighttime once more. His sleep had been uneasy again, still filled with that disembodied voice insistently calling his name. It had even sounded frantic this time, and he almost felt compelled to answer it... But then he had jerked awake, remembering that he had been supposed to meet that mysterious woman again after he had destroyed the nest of vampires. Standing and straightening his clothes, he pulled on his boots and was about to leave the room when he caught sight of Anna, sleeping in the bed opposite of the one he had been sleeping in.   
  
As he had been back in the Valerious manor, he was utterly captivated by her asleep. Normally she was so tough and determined, cold even at times, but asleep she was so soft and warm, so vulnerable. He felt a surge of protectiveness, wanting curl his body around hers like a dragon protecting its hoard. He wanted to shut out all the pains of the world, keep her safe and happy, make those bruises on ehr neck and that cut on her arm disappear. But he forced himself not to, instead bending down to lightly kiss the very tip of her nose. For a moment her eyes fluttered up to meet his, registering his presence with a small smile. As he backed away, her eyes closed and she rolled over onto her other side, curling up in a smaller ball. Van Helsing could not help but smile at her.  
  
When he got downstairs to the bar, he immediately looked for the woman. She had said she would know when he had completed his mission, and while he had no idea how she would know, he was assuming she was staying in the inn. But most things weren't making sense while dealing with the Wavewriter. Van Helsing realized after sweeping the large room with his eyes several times that she wasn't anywhere nearby, and sat at the bar. The bartender immediately approached him.  
  
"Scuse me sir, but are your initials G.V.H?" He asked politely.  
  
"Yes..." Van Helsing replied slowly. What was with everyone and knowing his name?!  
  
"Someone left this here for you." The bartender replied, pulling a folded piece of parchment out of his apron and handing it to Van Helsing.  
  
"Thank you." Van Helsing mumbled.  
  
On the front of the folded paper were the letters G. V.H. in beautiful cursive. Turning it over, he saw that it was sealed shut with a red wax seal in the shape of a sea shell. The meaning lost on him, he proceeded to open it and read its contents.  
  
_Congratulations, my friend, on destroying the nest of vampires. I am deeply sorry I could not keep our appointment. Would you please meet me, alone, at Count Dracula's old summer palace upon your receiving of this letter?  
  
Regards,  
  
A friend  
_  
"Very enigmatic." He muttered to himself, putting the envelope in a pocket of his very clean coat. After checking to make sure he had a pistol loaded with silver bullets and a sword on him, he left the inn for the said palace.

* * *

The palace that Count Vladislaus Dracula had once held an All Hallow's Eve masquerade ball at every year was as dead and hollow as its previous owner. The glass in the windows was still gone after Carl's explosive exit, and Van Helsing didn't have issues getting in. But what he was having issues with was finding his mystery woman.  
  
He wandered at last into the main ball room, covered in a fine layer of dust that his feet disturbed with every step. He could almost hear the music again, could almost see the dancers. Memory was strong here, and it reminded him of Carl. They never would've made it out if it hadn't been for him. Nothing would've been possible without him.  
  
"I swear I'll make it up to you, Carl. I'm working on it, but I don't have your genius or your silver tongue." Van Helsing spoke to the silent memories dancing around him, hoping that somewhere in them Carl's could hear him.  
  
"I see you killed the vampires." said a voice behind him. Van Helsing whirled to see a young man casually approaching him, hands behind his back, a half-smile on his lips. He seemed strangely familiar in his mannerisms and his looks. "Oh, don't worry. I won't tell anyone that you were talking to yourself."  
  
"Who are you?" He asked suspiciously, hand on his pistol.  
  
"Don't you recognize me? Oh!" He clapped his hands. "Last you saw me, I was in a different form. A woman's. Well, I tried to conjure her for you today, but I simply couldn't find the right threads to bend. So I figured a blast from your past might be nice." Van Helsing eyes him closely: the black hair, the wolfish grin, the pale skin... he knew who this was.  
  
"Dracula." He said coldly.  
  
"Well, close enough. This is what Vlad looked like five or six years before you murdered him the first time. Ooh, but murdered is a strong word. You didn't come here to hear about Vlad Dracula." He continued to pace idly, taking everything in.  
  
"What are you?" Gabriel whispered, half to himself. The strange... being did not answer. "What would you have me do next? Or have I proven myself?"  
  
"No. You still do not trust me." The man parading as Dracula beamed. "Next, you will go to a village just a day's travel from here. There's been a warlock practically enslaving the people there. Defeat him and meet me back here in Budapest. Do you accept? In your friend Carl's name?"  
  
"Yes." He said without hesitation.  
  
"Good, good. We're making progress already. Oh, I almost forgot. Here is your reward for destroying the vampires." Lazily, he pulled a piece of paper out of his coat and handed it to Van Helsing. It was thin and old, and was shaped like part of circle. Large dots formed an irregular pattern around the edge.  
  
"Wha-"  
  
"Tut! In due time, Gabriel, it will reveal its secrets to you." He chided. "Now go, and meet me back at the inn when you have succeeded in your task as I know you will."  
  
Van Helsing turned and began to walk away, but then turned to face the man once more. He found that he had disappeared as if he had never existed. The dust on the floor didn't even show any sign of his footsteps. But Van Helsing remembered him... it sounded silly, but he knew he existed.  
  
And now he thought he might know who he was. All the pieces fit... it seemed that he had been talking to the Wavewriter itself. Or one of its forms. That reassured him greatly as he made his way back to the inn. He seemed to be pleasing it, and if he continued to follow its orders and 'trust' it, he could ask for Carl to come back. Apparently, the Wavewriter had already known of this purpose, and must be showing favor to it if it was openly communicating with him.  
  
Everything would work out, Van Helsing realized for the first time with a rush of relief. Everything would be fine and right again. He and Anna would leave the next morning and would return no more then two days hence, one step closer to getting back Carl.  
  
He smiled going to sleep.

* * *

A/n-- Wow. That chapter is long. I was gonna split it into two, but in the end I decided that what I had planned as the second chapter was way too short to be worth it and I'd be posting both at the same time anyways... --takes a deep breath-- _Soo, anyywayy_, review and get M&M's, since we get yet more action in our next chapter! 


	21. Chapter 20: Shattered Souls and Renewed ...

A/N-- Whee! My story has over twenty chapters! --random happy dance-- And, all typed on my computer, it has 123 pages!!!! Scary, eh? Here's to my M&M-getting reviewers:  
  
**marrokinhas**: I'm happy you love my story! Gabriel will be telling the truth... two chapters from now, I believe.  
**Dare()-** Yup, they're gettin' Carl back! The mystery woman was indeed a form of the Wavewriter... just thought I'd scare yall with her. And nope, no Hawaiian surfer monks. I'm sorry.  
I thought it was cute to have him kiss the tip of her nose... I think that's the cutest way to kiss someone! I hope I continue to keep the characters IC for the rest of this story... soon there'll be danger for Gabriel to go OOC. I just hope I can handle it.  
I actually do write original stories, I'm hoping to publish my first before I get out of high school (I graduate 2008.) My penname on fictionpress.com is Arlen Herafrin (my old penname on here was Arlen Halfelven.)  
**Cryptkeeper()- **You reviewers confuse me.... half of you are all like 'We want Anna back we want Anna back' and then I bring her back and now you are all opting for her to get injured!! Jeez... LOL.  
That's a great idea, thanks so much for it! It really helped me write the fight scene... although the circumstances didn't allow me to fully copy it. Thanks for your review!  
**Anthem82**- I'm glad you enjoyed the fight scene and the vampires... I loved writing both. Looking back, I thought their names were a little bizarre. But I'm happy you thought they were cool!  
**Irish Anor**- Don't make me bite you hand again! LOL. And relax.... read the rest of the chapters... there is hope for Carl... I was wondering where you were! I missed your reviews! I'm glad you are back!  
(2nd review) Oh boy, the Gabriel snuggling returns... And I had to explain this earlier. The Cardinal died in chapter one. No one remembers that! LOL.  
(3rd review) You are meant to hate Cardinal Kokolios, dear. He is a very bad man. LOL.  
(4th review) I'm not sure that's a compliment either... what IS an Irish Anor anyways?!? I'm so confuzzled...  
(5th review) You crack me up..... And here's your update!!  
**HyperCaz()-** there you are! I was wondering... And yes, there are definite Carl-coming-back-vibrations in the wind. He looks so different normally! So does Hugh Jackman...  
  
Location in this chapter is based on the map of Transylvania on vanhelsing.net. If you were to go to that and go from the icon that says 'the Ballroom' and then go northeast, along the river, you'd see pretty much where I placed this town.

* * *

Chapter 20:  
Shattered Souls and Renewed Hope  
  
"Wow." Was All Anna could say once they saw the town.   
  
It was quite an achievement for her to have said as much; she had _not_ been pleased to be awoken at five o'clock in the morning, told that the cult still hadn't been flushed out, and that they'd be riding all day to a town northeast of Budapest to defeat a rampaging Warlock also involved with the cult. For once, she had been the brooding one, glowering on her horse as they rode, and Van Helsing had been the chatty one. She was a little suspicious about his good mood...  
  
She had chosen an appropriate moment to express such eloquent sentiments as the word 'wow.' After a solid twenty-four hours of riding, (stopping only to eat and to get fresh horses at a village they passed through) the sun was just rising and giving birth to the sight of what must have been a rather large tantrum-throwing child. Windows on houses were broken, all greenery was smoldering, and chickens and hogs were running happily through the wreckage. Unconscious people were just now stirring, and discovering that various articles of their clothing and furniture had been thrown willy-nilly all throughout the streets.  
  
Still gaping, Anna and Van Helsing stepped gingerly through the mess. Nothing had been left untouched by whatever strange phenomenon had swept through that night as they rode. Upon reaching the town square, the desolation reached a new level; before, everything had seemed almost comical and injuries had been minor. But here, people were actually bleeding and dying. Fires were still burning here, and on buildings as well. Directly in front of them was the church. The building, once white and tall, looked as though lightening had struck it and split it in half. A few nearby businesses had been crushed by the gleaming steeple as it fell, and more had been wounded by the flying bits of stone and wood that had been spewed forth in whatever impact had taken such a sizable bite out of the large church.  
  
"What happened here?" Van Helsing asked a bewildered woman who stood, staring at the destruction as they did. He had pretty much figured what had happened, but needed to know for sure.  
  
"That horrible man... sorcerer or whatever he was... he grew angry about something... and began to rip apart the town with his spells from his place atop the church steeple." She said weakly. "And then he turned the spell upon the church itself, making it explode... But I saw him get away, across the river and towards the mountains."  
  
"When? How?" He pressed.  
  
"I'm not sure!" The woman cried desperately, hot tears of rage and despair cleaning the soot and dirt off her face. "I went unconscious right after I saw it happen, I don't know when it was! He had us working all day and night to serve his purposes!"  
  
"And what were they?" Anna asked gently.  
  
"Well..." The woman sniffed, calming a little. "They were unpredictable. Sometimes he'd want a festival, sometimes he'd want us to have a mock funeral. He'd have us work endlessly for days at a time washing the church till it shone, for that's where he lived. Or he'd have all the men out hunting and all the women cooking for him. He'd have children play games at his feet and call him Papa..." She shuddered. "And there were days when he'd command us to be inside and never come out and shut all the windows and lock all the doors. And we'd hear scratching and creaking and moaning, and sometimes even explosions. He said he was working on something, on a machine or a spell." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "He was a very good sorcerer, but the worst sort of man."  
  
"Can you point to the direction he left in?" Van Helsing asked. The woman nodded and pointed just to the left of the wrecked church.  
  
"Past the mill on the river, and up into those mountains there. I went unconscious after that." She replied.  
  
"Thank you." Van Helsing replied. With that, he and Anna mounted their horses again and were off.

* * *

In under and hour they passed the decimated mill on the river, and found a place to ford the said water. After passing through the chilly substance and wondering at the curious 'U' shape that particular bend took, (A/N-- You could probably find this on the map) they found themselves directly on the slope of the mountains. The peaks were steep and jagged, so they opted to tie the horses to a couple nearby trees.  
  
"I wonder if they ever get tired of being left behind." Van Helsing mused as they began their ascent.  
  
"Probably not. For one thing, these are different horses than last time. For another thing, I think they might be the smart ones. After all, they figured out how not to get involved in stuff like this." Anna replied as she began to follow.  
  
Hours of training now paid off for the two Hunters. The climb was long and arduous, often forcing them to pull themselves forward on their stomachs or practically walk on all fours through the snow to get where they needed to go. They were following more signs of desolation, mostly ash, along the mountain, and once they reached its peak, it veered sharply to the right. Following it to its end, Anna and Gabriel straightened at last. They were standing on a cliff, looking across a chasm perhaps just as wide as the one that had separated Castle Frankenstein from the forest they had used to escape. And there, on the next peak over, was a huge black spire, perched precariously on the mountain.  
  
"Why can't evil fortresses ever be easy to get to?" Van Helsing sighed, his arms dropping.   
  
Anna looked down and saw that the mountain didn't simply stop; it dropped down sharply for around five feet onto a large ledge. From there, it curved gently down in an exaggerated U, then curved back up to meet the mountain they were trying to get to. All along this ran a narrow trail, just wide enough for one man. They could use it to get to the other side... but the going would be dangerous. The trail had snow on it, and on either side it was a nearly sheer snowy mountainside.  
  
"We could use that trail down there to get to it." Anna said out loud, still leaning over the edge and looking down at the trail. The sunlight was gleaming in the snow, giving the impression of warmth, but the biting wind easily reminded her otherwise. Both this contradiction and the height she was looking down from gave her a feeling of extreme dizziness that wasn't at all unpleasant. It was actually quite fascinating.  
  
"Only if we wanted it to take an age." Van Helsing replied. She could hear him shuffling around for something, but didn't look up to see what he was doing.  
  
"Do you have a better idea?" She retorted, still fascinated with looking down.  
  
"Yes, actually." Van Helsing said mildly. There was the strange sound of something being fired, but before Anna could react he had seized her around her waist and pulled her close to him. "Remember Castle Frankenstein?" Anna nodded and rewarded him with a daredevil grin.  
  
Van Helsing lodged the grappling gun in a crevice in the rock near where they stood, then clamped the special glider onto it. He thanked God that Carl had known him well enough to know that the original gun would probably not return from Transylvania and had built a second one, then leapt off the ledge.  
  
The flight was cold and harrowing; when they reached the other side, both were exceedingly glad for solid ground. Unlike their escape from Castle Frankenstein, this flight didn't include the fear of heights, but the fear of slipping and crashing onto the narrow trail below them. Or worse, missing the narrow trail below them.   
  
They leapt off the glider and landed, stumbling, on the platform below the mysterious spire they assumed was home to the sorcerer. It was supported by four black iron pillars, but there didn't seem to be any means of entry. The floor of the room above was about ten feet from the ground, and the faint outlines trapdoor could be seen.  
  
"Anna, if I get you up on my shoulders do you think you can try and open that trapdoor?" Van Helsing asked. Anna observed it for a moment, then nodded.  
  
"I think so."  
  
"Alright then."  
  
Van Helsing knelt and Anna stepped up onto his shoulders, balancing herself. Carefully, aware of how close to the edge they were, Van Helsing rose to his feet enough so that Anna could comfortably work on opening the trapdoor. She pushed vigorously on it, even punching it in her frustration, but it would not open. Next she seized the small grooves that gave away its presence and tried to pull it open.  
  
"It won't push open!" She said with exasperation.  
  
"Wait, I'm taking you down." Van Helsing replied, slowly kneeling again. Anna hopped off and watched as he took out his crossbow. He fired a single shot, leaving the bolt embedded in the door. "Now try pulling it open." Anna got on his shoulders and he lifted her again. This time, after some tugging and wiggling, she managed to pull it open.  
  
"Got it!" this last word ended in a brief shriek as a rope ladder tumbled out and hit her in the face. Startled, her arms began to windmill and she fell backwards, taking Van Helsing with her. He crashed safely to the platform, but she kept going, falling off the edge and into the snowy oblivion...  
  
"Anna!" Van Helsing called, immediately flipping onto his stomach and scrambling to the edge. To his relief, she was there, clinging desperately to the edge. He hauled her up. "Are you alright?"  
  
"Yes." She said breathlessly.  
  
"Good." He said with relief. Turning to the rope ladder, he began to climb it cautiously.

* * *

The warlock paced his upper rooms in a state of agitation. _Damn_ the world! _Damn_ the way it worked! No matter how hard he tried, he could never get his spell to work...  
  
All his life, he had been fascinated with the human soul. His beloved mother had taught him to have supreme faith in it, and, despite their poverty, given him hope. But when he discovered that he was an illegitimate child, born of the passion his mother lived with, and the church he had faith in told him she was damned to hell, he began to hate the rules that governed the soul.  
  
His mother's untimely death had not helped at all either. He was struck with the anguishing realization that, according to those disgusting rules, she was now in hell. A young teenager out on Transylvania's streets, he quickly learned of magick and its uses. Having always been a brash and capricious person, he immediately attempted to resurrect his mother, only to be saved from her same fate by an experienced magick-user who agreed to teach him the ways of the art.  
  
He had become proficient in it with surprising quickness, devouring whole tomes of lore. As a young man, he traveled all over his native country in search of those who could teach him more, but none could teach him what he sought: the secrets of the soul.  
  
Remembering the rules of his old church, which he still believed held true, he began to fear for his soul. Would he be condemned, as his mother had been, for trying to use magick to understand life? It was at that fateful time of worry he discovered a powerful spell: the Spell of a Thousand Souls.   
  
The basic idea was this: by capturing a thousand souls, one could know the nature of one's own soul. He immediately was fascinated with the spell, but it did not help in one aspect. It did not tell you exactly _how_ you were supposed to get the souls. Being a Transylvanian, he knew of vampires and how, when they turned you into one of them, your soul was lost. He theorized that it could be captured immediately after you were sired, and briefly considered becoming a vampire to be able to do this. But that would've defeated the whole purpose, seeing as how vampire's don't have souls to be judged in any case. Still, it didn't rule out getting _help_ from a vampire...  
  
For years he sought out Count Dracula, the most infamous vampire of them all. For this task, he would not consider going to anyone else. But the vampire was nowhere to be found. And last night, he had learned of Dracula's demise, which had taken a substantial chunk out of the vampire population. Oh sure, there were still some left... but they were mostly second and third generation vampires, not nearly powerful for what he needed. Plus, the device he had been designing for capturing the souls had fallen apart under the strain of one of experiments just the previous night.  
  
Forcing himself into a state of calm, he stopped his pacing and cursing. He could do nothing in this state. He would go through his books again, try and find another well-known and powerful vampire whose help he could seek. Yes, books had ever been his friends. They would soothe and comfort him now.  
  
Nestled in his armchair with books all around him, he registered the bumps below him only vaguely. The brief shriek of terror he heard? Well, he explained it as the wind howling outside.

* * *

Anna and Van Helsing pulled themselves quickly through the trapdoor and came up ready for a fight, which they expected. But there was nothing. Not even a trap. The room was small and circular, made of the same steel as everything else. Messy bookcases were everywhere, books scattered haphazardly across the room in a fashion that reminded Van Helsing of Carl. A ladder in the center of the room led to the next level. After both had made a careful circle of the chamber, the Hunters nodded to each other and headed one after the other up the ladder.  
  
This room held both of them in awe; it was absolutely covered in gleaming weapons. Almost every type of sword imaginable, from daggers to long-handled broadswords. There were sais, spears, axes, flails, bolas, shields, war hammers and even a few strange weapons that they had no names for. This room they approached with even more caution, hesitantly putting each foot in front of the other.  
  
"The warlock must be higher up. We should find a way to block this room off once we leave it so he can't get down here for aid." Anna supplied in the barest of whispers. Both were incredibly nervous, fearing that their words and thoughts indeed weren't theirs at the moment. Their guards were down as they approached the next ladder, which explained why the trap nearly got them.  
  
The second Van Helsing put his foot down on the flagstone in front of the ladder, a sword from the wall swung out, so that when he jerked back he almost decapitated himself. He heard Anna call out and saw that in a circle all around the room, pieces of the stone floor were flying up, hitting the ceiling, and raining bits of rock down on them. That also meant that the floor was slowly dissolving.  
  
"Onto the ladder!" Van Helsing cried, shoving Anna ahead of him and wincing as a stone flying from the ground hit him hard on the head. He stumbled backwards, threatening to fall to the room of the floor below him.  
  
_"Gabriel!"_ Anna said sharply, reaching out and snagging the front of the coat.   
  
She jerked him against herself, bypassing caution and causing him to hit his head on the iron ladder before he was finally able to grab on and pull himself up beside her. With Anna at the very top and her head pressed against the trapdoor and Van Helsing just below, his head on the small of her back, they watched the floor crumble and disappear. When all was quiet again, they assessed their condition. A few small cuts on each of them from the falling rock, and a bruise forming on Van Helsing's chin from the flying piece of floor. All Anna's jerking him into the ladder had done was leave a red mark and give him a headache. He was currently rubbing the place she had hit, making her blush and grin weakly.  
  
"Sorry." She said sheepishly.  
  
"No matter." He sighed. "It's so hard to find good help these days." He leaned off the ladder and, after pulling his coat sleeve over his hand, managed to pry the sword sticking off the wall out. "We can block the trapdoor off with this." He told Anna, who now opened the trapdoor and pulled herself into the next room.   
  
Once she was in, Van Helsing pulled himself up, closed the trapdoor, then barred it with the sword (it was more of a saber) he had taken from the room before. He then straightened and realized why Anna had frozen and was staring fixedly in front of herself.

* * *

The warlock had been forced to acknowledge that something was wrong at sound of rocks smashing against his floor and the cries of two people- a man and a woman -he could hear from below him. He promptly threw his books to the side and stood, listening intently. Gradually, the rock smashing ceased, but, judging by the sound of muffled voices, the intruders had lived. He prepared himself for a battle, spells already in mind. This was the peak of his tower, larger than all the other rooms. On the narrowing walls that spiraled upwards to the heavens he thought of so frequently, forming that spire shape, he kept all his potions and ingredients. He had more charms placed on this room to aid him than he could count.  
  
Maybe this was a gift from God. Maybe these people would help with his experiments.

* * *

Anna had frozen the second she had stood inside the room, her eyes meeting with the cold blue ones of the man she assumed to be the warlock. He wasn't much taller than herself, wearing a dark blue silk robe, lined with gold, with similar ninja pants on underneath. A golden medallion hung around his neck. His red hair was completely slicked back. And, all in all, he didn't seem happy. Gabriel froze too, meeting his eyes.  
  
"Please, come into my home." The warlock said dryly. "I hope you enjoy your. Please forgive the floor in the other room, it gives me such dreadful problems."  
  
"Sir, you are now in the hands of the Knights of the Holy Order, having been suspected of-" Van Helsing began automatically.  
  
"In your hands?" The warlock laughed harshly. "I hope you have enough hands to catch me." There was a blinding flash of light and, suddenly, there wasn't just one Warlock... There were too many to count when they were moving as fast as they did.  
  
Van Helsing and Anna were quickly overrun. They were everywhere, levitating to get up to chemicals higher in the spire, circling around them, floating above them in the air. This was when the warlock was glad of his hours upon hours of training. He was using a spell called Shards of the Soul, which splits you into as many parts as you can manage, completely replicating you and your abilities, albeit at a fraction of your power. But since he had become so powerful, he was still able to do many things in this state. And if he focused three parts on the same task, they would combine all their strength.  
  
Six immediately attacked Van Helsing and Anna, leaving them no option but to back up slowly until they were against the far wall. The circle was completed by their fanned out attackers, and as they drew closer, both Hunters drew their swords and turned the draw into a side-to-side slash that gutted all six. They leapt out of the way as the corpses toppled into their own blood and entrails. Mysteriously, they dissolved.  
  
The warlock smirked inwardly. Only one body contained the essential piece of his soul. If they could locate that one and kill it, they could kill him. Of course, with every wrong kill, all the other clones grew in strength, especially the one with that special piece.  
  
This was quickly realized by Anna and Gabriel, who charged forward and began to wound every one of the clones they could reach; but with everyone they killed because they had no other choice, the other ones seemed to grow stronger, faster, cleverer. At last two that had dropped down from levitating charged and separated the duo, the glimmers of spells held in the palm of their hands. Divided like sheep, they were now on their own against the wizards.  
  
Anna spun on one foot and slashed with her sword, trying and succeeding in getting her opponent to back away. But as she raised her sword to deal a vicious strike, she came down on a wooden desk. The clone was gone. But she heard the crackling behind her and released her sword. She twisted, falling to the ground with one leg tucked beneath her and the other one straight out, her upper body supported a few inches from the floor by her hands. The small fireball flew over her and hit the papers, setting them briefly aflame before the clone she was fighting doused the flames.   
  
Still in her crouched position, she drew a knife from her boot and stabbed down at the clone's foot. He stepped out of the way a second before the strike made it, but his robe was caught. She was back on her feet and hefting her sword out of the table, slicing down through the air towards her trapped opponent. But he pulled out of the way, ripping his robe. Before she got too off balance, the gypsy jerked back, barely avoiding a deft palm strike from the clone. She tried another side-to-side slash, but he deflected her arm outwards with his and tripped her, knocking her back onto the wet table. Dropping her sword, she propped herself up and kicked out with both legs, sending her attacker stumbling.  
  
Van Helsing wasn't fairing very well. He had been caught in a vicious duel with his clone, who had summoned a sword that was apparently made of lightening. Once, it had caught on his coat and almost set him on fire. And whenever it came into contact with his sword, it send frightful jolts through him. It was one of those moments now; the clone had tried a deft uppercut, and he had parried by knocking it upwards. But while he had intended to just bat it away and hope he didn't get too badly shocked, the clone had released his sword with one hand and used his over to perform some sort of holding spell that kept his arms locked in the position they were in. Powerful waves of energy rolled through him, making him freeze and gasp. It was perhaps the weirdest, most painful experience of his life.  
  
The clone was smiling, backing him up hard into the wall. His head was bent backwards over a wooden shelf, leaving him staring up into the malicious eyes of another clone holding an Erlenmeyer flask of some strange green liquid and slowly tipping it. van Helsing shut his eyes and waited for a slow, painful death to come.  
  
But then he was jerked roughly away and onto the floor by some strange force. It turns out that that force was Anna's opponent, having just been knocked away and into Van Helsing's opponent at an angle. Since there was currently a spell of binding on the two, they were both sent flying out of the way of the acid. The three now lay over the trapdoor, Van Helsing on the verge of passing out from all the energy pumping through him. Anna's previous opponent got to his feet and gasped, seeing that the spilled acid was now seeping towards the trapdoor. Van Helsing saw it too, but was on top of his clone. If he could wait long enough...  
  
Anna rushed forward, sword held out, and stabbed the one she had previously been fighting. He melted into blood before her, and the ones above began to fly around even faster, gathering bottles. She recognized them as the same one that had contained the acid... She began to run circles around the room, causing the clones to drop their acid in a circle that began to drain towards the trapdoor. She saw that Van Helsing was still there, nearly dead from the electricity, but she had been forced to climb onto one of the tables to avoid the acid. The clones were now busy looking for other things.  
  
"Gabriel!" She screamed, feeling for once utterly helpless.  
  
The clone banished the electric sword, finally ending Gabriel's torment. But he refused to move, still pinning him to the ground. The acid at last arrived, from all side. It chewed into the man quickly. His screams filled the spire and echoed hauntingly back down in the form of the other clones' screams, both of the wounded that had stayed out of the fight and the ones that had tossed the acid. Without warning, they all burst as the other ones had. From the one Van Helsing had previously been on top of, a strange, white PIECE of light floated up. It hovered in the air for a moment, then shattered and fell all around them like bits of a star. As beautiful as it was, and as happy as they were to have the enemy dead, there was still one problem; Van Helsing surrounded by acid.  
  
He yelped and swore, leaping to his feet, as it soaked through to his knees and onto his palms. Anna shouted his name desperately and he saw that beside her table the acid was mostly gone. One his tip toes and as quickly as he could, he ran to her. She hauled him onto the table beside her and cradled him as he collapsed, shaking from utter exhaustion and pain.  
  
"Van Helsing? Gabriel?" She asked frantically as he simply went slack against her. "Are you...?"  
  
"I'm going to live... I think." Van Helsing gasped out, lifting his head to see her face so close to his. Were those tears that made her eyes glitter so brilliantly...? "Are you okay?"  
  
"Me? Yes. Yes. I'm okay. I-" Anna started to speak quickly, then trailed off. There were two more words she wanted to say, but her lips and her throat would not form them. "Was worried." She finished.  
  
"Well... I'm made of tougher stuff than I look." He grinned lopsidedly, leaning against the wall and closing his eyes.  
  
"If you're made of stuff tougher than you look, what's that make you? Paper?" She joked. Barely awake, all he could do was laugh in his throat.

* * *

He would never know how he made it back to the village they had started their search at. All he remembered was leaving the tower and crossing the chasm again, but after he got his grappling gun back he could remember nothing. Later, Anna told him that he was just mechanically putting one foot in front of the other, but seemed in a daze. She always walked very close to him out of concern, and half-led his horse when it was time to ride again. Van Helsing's next memory was of waking to the smell of breakfast. Anna was feeding it to him, since he was mostly incoherent. Now he was seeing a whole new side to her: a softer, gentler side. It was her rolling accent and graceful words that would lull him into a gentle, painless slumber, and her tender calling of his name that reminded him to return to the world of the living.  
  
A very odd thing occurred on the second morning they were there. As he had since they had left the Vatican, he was haunted by that voice calling his name in the unfathomable black. But it was more kind, pitying, but still urgent. Like a worried friend beckoning verbally to a wounded comrade to return from the void. Finally, he began to follow the voice.  
  
_I'm coming_... He murmured mentally. _I'm coming to you._..  
  
"Gabriel?" asked a confused voice.  
  
Suddenly, he snapped out of his reverie. Anna was still at his side, a look of confusion on her face. He sat up slowly, now fully aware of his surroundings.  
  
"Anna... How long have I been out?" Van Helsing asked, resting against the headboard.  
  
"The inevitable question." She laughed shortly. "You were out the rest of the day after the fight and all that night, as well as all yesterday. I would wake you for meals and nothing more."  
  
"What about you? You got some rest too, right?" He asked quickly.  
  
"Yes, I slept in between meals as well." Anna reassured him. "Are you feeling well enough to eat?" She offered him a plate of sausage and toast she had probably gotten from the innkeeper.  
  
"I'd rather get going, actuall-" He cut himself off mid-word at the sudden, stormy look on Anna's face. "Right after some breakfast." He finished meekly, accepting the tray and devouring it.

* * *

They left the town before noon that day, thanked the gracious innkeeper, who had given them everything free despite the desolation of her town as thanks for killing the warlock.  
  
"Strange." Van Helsing had mused. "I never even knew his name."  
  
By noon of the next day, they were back in Budapest and the inn they had stayed at previously. They paid for new rooms, and the innkeeper gave Van Helsing another note with the initials G. V.H. on it. It read as follows:  
  
_Excellent job with the warlock. I hope you mend soon so that you can make a trip to Castle Frankenstein... a scientist's misguided creation awaits you there. My apologies that I could not meet with you in person... but I am sure that you are beginning to trust me more. Here is your reward.  
  
Warm Regards,  
  
A friend  
_  
A piece of paper, shaped almost identically to the one he had gotten as a 'reward' previously, fluttered out of the note. He bent to retrieve it, noting that it had a different pattern of dots than the other.  
  
"What is it?" Anna asked over his shoulder. He immediately crumpled the note but showed her the piece of paper.  
  
"Part of a map. The Order thinks that if we can find the rest we can find the cult's headquarters." He lied.  
  
"Oh." Anna said slowly, her eyes not leaving Van Helsing's. For a frightening instant, he was afraid she didn't believe him. But then she smiled. "Well, let's wait till nightfall to rush off on their next assignment, yes?"  
  
"Yes." Van Helsing returned the smile brightly. There was a kind of happy electricity in the air. They could rest a little now. They were definitely getting closer.

* * *

A/n-- Damn, these chapters just get longer!! yet more M&M's for reviewers, since the final action chapter is up next. Hope I didn't drive you nuts with this one... And thanks to Cryptkeeper for the idea about the warlock making clones! 


	22. Chapter 21: I Only Have Eyes For You

A/N-- Wow, we are so unbelievably close to the end!!! Seriously, just two more chapters left after this!! Unless the plot bunnies attack... again... This happens to be the most romantic chapter so far, so I hope you enjoy it!  
  
**Doris()-** Your favorite fic? blushes Thank you!  
I'm glad you enjoyed the Gabriel/Anna as well as the fighting... both are fun to write!  
This fic is meant to keep you on your toes! And good guessing about the woman being involved with the Wavewriter... she makes another appearance at this chapter's end.  
Dammit, I shoulda done two chapters... oh well. Thanks for the cookies! gobbles cookies  
LOL, it's okay. Later I went back and realized how you got confused; it wasn't that hard to!  
And yes, I will review the second you post a fic! And don't worry about it being terribly good... ask Irish Anor what MY first fic was like! nervous laugh If you read lots of good fics, they'll rub off on you in the end.  
(2nd review)  
I'm so sorry! I guess you reviewed the day I posted the chapter... Here's some extra M&M's!  
I'm happy you find Van Helsing's humor convincing. I like experimenting with the lighter and darker sides of people simultaneously... just one of my things. I hope this chapter doesn't go TOO light, however.  
Actually, it isn't Frankenstein they'll be facing. You'll see who it is. :-) And yes, this is the final action chapter. Strangely enough, I don't exactly remember HOW I got the idea for this!! I sorta do, but not really!  
**Irish Anor**- Good point... maybe he _was_ tissue!!! LOL.  
Yea. Tolkien is kinda dead, LOL. I don't care if you've gone nuts, I'm just glad you're back!  
ROFLMAO, the tricks our eyes will play on us...  
**HyperCaz()-** Puss-In-Boots is sooo adorable! That movie was good for a sequel... thanks for the review!  
**japanesegirl101**- Yes, this story has come a long way since the idea popped into my head in the middle of the movie... I should be proud of the story; it writes itself! I thought making it Dracula was a nice touch too... I'll try and live up to your standards with this chappie!  
**The Mighty Wavewriter**- Was that SERIOUSLY your penname?! ROFLMAO, I did a complete double take when I saw that... what a way to wake up... Too bad you won't make 'em my neighbors, LOL. Here's another long chapter!  
**Anthem82()-** I'm glad you pitied the warlock, you were meant to. I like giving bad guy's backgrounds and stories, so that they seem more like people. Here's the next chapter with another bad guy!  
**Dare()-** --Shakes head-- reviewers confuse me... wait, I've signed over 500 reviews... doesn't that make me one of you...? Oh well.  
Yes, I graduate high school in 2008. I just left middle school.. does the fact that I'm 13 really shock you that much? Wait, if you're not American... where are you from?!  
My first story would be about my beloved character Arlen Herafrin. The story is already over fifty pages long, but I'm suffering a bit of writer's block with it. hopefully I'll finish it before high school is done!!  
**GreenGeige()-** I think all my reviewers are weird! LOL. But I love them all the same. Thanks for your review!  
  
...has anyone noticed I like ellipses?

* * *

Chapter 21:  
I Only Have Eyes For You  
  
Anna and Gabriel spent the rest of the surprisingly nice winter day roaming Budapest, window shopping and chatting as they went. Van Helsing even bought the gypsy princess a couple trinkets that had amused her. But as the day waned, they knew the time for celebration was done and headed back to the inn. While Anna was in their room, Van Helsing went downstairs to give the pretense of meeting someone. After remaining there for twenty minutes, he came back to the room looking grave.  
  
"The Order still can't find the map or anything. We do know about a scientist on the run from the authorities who recently put up in Castle Frankenstein. He seems to have created some prehistoric beast..." Van Helsing trailed off. "We can leave in the morning or we can leave now, whatever you wish."  
  
"Let me guess, it's part of the cult again?" Anna snapped, exasperated.  
  
"Yes it is." Van Helsing replied calmly.  
  
"Why aren't we going for the throat? If there are loose ends we can tie them up at the end!" Anna flung her arms up in the air.  
  
"It's like trying to find the ocean. You follow a river to it, don't you? Well we're still trying to find the right river. The vampires didn't have anything? We tried the warlock. That still wasn't right. So we'll try this." He said with supreme placidity.  
  
"But you know what I've noticed? You haven't even asked them a single question about the cult when you've been around them!" Anna cried.  
  
"In case you haven't noticed they attacked us the second we saw them. there wasn't much _time_." He continued in a voice bordering monotone. His heart was pounding worriedly. She was on to him.  
  
"Well you never even searched their hideouts after they were dead! It was as though they were completely unrelated to the cult. They were dead, you came back here, snuck off to meet someone and then suddenly had a new resource." Her voice was full of frustration. "How are you and the Order even _communicating_ so fast?" Van Helsing was silent, not meeting her eyes.  
  
"Look, I know this is frustrating, but we have to keep trying." He said in a quiet voice after a moment.  
  
"It just doesn't add up, that's all." She said in a low voice, crossing her arms. "there doesn't seem to be any grand scheme. The pieces don't add up. And how come we haven't heard of any mysterious murders? Where are this cult's _crimes_? No one talks about them, and Transylvanians do that, you know. We are fascinated with the things that haunt us."  
  
"Most evil plans don't make sense." Van Helsing sighed, checking all his weapons.  
  
"Dracula's did in the end." Anna countered.  
  
"Yes. In the _end_. When this is over it will all make sense." He soothed.  
  
"Well I hope it's over soon." She grumbled, stalking out the door.  
  
"Don't worry. I have a feeling it will be soon." He reassured her as he followed, covertly fingering the two pieces of paper in his pocket.

* * *

It took only a few hours to reach Castle Frankenstein; it was tolling midnight as they finally came into view of it.  
  
"The happy memories." Van Helsing said dryly as they walked towards the castle's doors. It was beginning to snow, and the storm would likely be a big one. Hopefully the scientist would be hospitable. Anna nodded, shivering as they walked. "Personally, I think Transylvania has some horrendously bad luck. All told, it's only been a month since we destroyed Dracula and already we've got evil happenings." He continued. "You get rid of one mad scientist, another comes. I'll bet it's the same with all the monsters too. Honestly, the Order could station me here for eternity and I'd never run out of assignments."  
  
"That wouldn't be that bad." Anna replied quickly, her anger with him earlier long forgotten. She trusted him once more. "We could work together. I mean, there's plenty of room in my home for the two of us, and with Dracula dead I've nothing else to do..." She trailed off. "We do work well as a team."  
  
It hit him in a flash, the vision. He and Anna, living happily together in Transylvania, fighting monsters. Carl was there too, designing weapons for them and helping them defeat their enemies with his favorite weapon: knowledge. Maybe that innkeeper he had gotten cozy with on their assignment to kill Dracula would move in too. And maybe, someday, both of the couples would be hearing wedding bells and little feet pattering down the halls of the Valerious manor. The mental image filled him with such overwhelming joy and gave him new, fiercer determination. He _would_ complete this mission and save Carl, and that happy vision _would_ come to pass.  
  
"I'll have to ask the Order about staying here when this mission is done." Van Helsing smiled at Anna, a gesture she returned. They then knocked on the door loud and hard. After waiting for five minutes, they were ready to knock again, but it swung open the tiniest bit. A head of tousled black hair and adorned with two crystalline blue eyes, covered by glasses, poked its way out.  
  
"Can I help you?" The man asked.  
  
"We're looking for shelter from the storm, might we come in?" Van Helsing called above the rising wind. The man looked around nervously for a moment, then agreed.  
  
"Alright then, this place is big enough for all of us." He said cheerily, opening the door wide. Smiling gratefully, Anna and Van Helsing stepped in. It was brighter than when they had been in there last, not as gloomy. It was decorated very nicely too. The man noticed, as they looked around, the various weapons hanging at their sides. "Well, um, those are some odd items for travelers." He said nervously. He had an English accent, they noticed.  
  
"Our weapons? One does not travel in Transylvania unprotected." Anna replied, watching him.  
  
"Surely you've heard tales of all the monsters around here." Van Helsing supplied. The color seemed to drain out of the man's face.  
  
"What am I thinking? Where are my manners? My name is Douglas Ericsson." He smiled, covering up for his nervousness, and shaking their hands.  
  
"My name is Anna."  
  
"Mine is Gabriel."  
  
"No last names, eh?" Douglas asked sportingly, but judged by the looks on their faces he would get no answer. "You must be exhausted from your journey in all this snow, since you didn't seem to have horses... Come, let's get into the hall where its warmer and I can fix you some tea." He led them through several corridors and finally into the huge hall where once all of the baby vampires eggs had hung. Now it was marvelously shiny, and brightly lit as were all the other places. They drew in their breath at all the gorgeous decorations: new, polished oak furniture, massive paintings and tapestries.  
  
"You certainly have made improvements upon it since last I was here..." Anna whispered.  
  
"Have you been here before?" Douglas asked in shock.  
  
"Once, as a child, I got lost and wandered in here. It was quite dark and dank, nothing like this." Anna supplied quickly. They didn't want to frighten the man, they still needed to find out where this 'monster' was kept.  
  
"Well, I felt the need to improve upon it of course." Douglas beamed, handing them each a silver cup full of tea. "It's nice to have company. Now all these silver sups won't go to waste!" He laughed, taking a drink of his own tea.  
  
"Well you must obviously have a lot of money to have such lavish decorations. Why move out here in the backwoods of Romania, a haunted land, and select a decrepit castle as your domain?" Van Helsing asked casually, drinking some of his own tea. Douglas's hand tightened slightly on his cup.  
  
"Well, uh, you see, I'm a scientist and I... needed somewhere quiet to work on my experiments. My family left me a large inheritance, so I decided to make it at least look nice." Douglas said weakly.  
  
"What do you work on?" Ann asked.  
  
"Prehistoric animals. Particularly the link between dinosaurs and birds." Douglas shifted from one foot to the other.  
  
"What's behind this curtain...?" Van Helsing wondered aloud. He had moseyed over to the place where he knew there was a balcony, the balcony Dracula and his two remaining Brides had watched their children take flight from. A huge, thick red curtain had been draped over it, controlled by a thick rope of gold thread. He began to pull on it.  
  
_"Don't!"_ Douglas howled, running towards Van Helsing, but it was too late. The curtain fell away, revealing a massive cage made out of the balcony. Inside it was an equally enormous pterodactyl. (A/N-- The ones with wings... think Jurassic Park 3.) It was a grayish-purple color, with large amber eyes. At the sudden intrusion of its privacy, it screeched and clawed at the cage, before settling back again.  
  
"My God..." Anna breathed, coming to stand quickly beside Van Helsing. "Is this it?"  
  
"It must be." He replied.  
  
"Wait... you knew about him?" Douglas asked, clearly confused. He was breathing very quickly.  
  
"That's why we came. I am a member of the Knights of the Holy Order, I was sent here to destroy this creature." Van Helsing replied with his customary cool.  
  
"No! Don't destroy him!" Douglas shrieked, running up a ladder revealed by the moving of the curtain to stand beside the cage protectively. "He's been my life's work! Every since I was a little boy I always wanted to see the dinosaurs, to understand them better. My parents told me that I was a bright enough lad, and that I should study and become a scientist so I could learn from their bones. But... I wanted more." He reached through the bars of the cage to stroke the face of the pterodactyl. "I wanted to touch them, to feel them, to look into their eyes and try and see what they were thinking.  
  
"My parents couldn't believe it when I persisted on finding a way to bring back the dinosaurs. I was trying everything, wild things like time travel and such. But when they found out what I was using their money for... they disowned me. Right before I made my discovery! Thankfully, I found a new patron who believe in me truly. But he soon deserted me too. On and on this went, until finally I was left to scrape a living on my own... as a thief. Eventually I was forced to leave Europe to avoid being captured. And so, picking the lowest fares I could find anywhere, I ended up here in Romania. It seemed that no one went near this part, so I found my way into Transylvania.  
  
"It was then, around a month ago, in this place of myth and magic, I did it. I brought back a pterodactyl, always my favorite dinosaur! But she did not live long.... and the authorities were catching on to me again. So I fled even farther in, until I found myself here, where people talked of a man named Dracula who was seemingly immortal. After much digging, I found out what he had really been before he was killed: a vampire. Intrigued, I managed to get samples of vampiric blood. Their properties were perfect. I could use it to keep my dinosaur alive!  
  
"So I preformed the experiment again... and surely enough-" Douglas patted the pterodactyl's neck. "Here he is!"  
  
"You put the blood of a vampire into a creature like that? You idiot! vampires are natural born killers! Do you know their powers?" Anna cried angrily.  
  
"Oh, I found out. I found out." Douglas nodded fervently. "While the vampire blood kept my friend here alive, it also drove him into a murderous frenzy. He tore through the castle, seemingly unstoppable. I was almost forced to kill him with the special darts I had created in case of an emergency... but then he found a lavishly decorated room in one of the towers, with many beautiful dresses inside. He calmed instantly and set himself up there, entranced by the shimmering garments.  
  
"So you see? You can't kill him! He's intelligent and really quite sweet. His name is Albert and he loves pretty things and being talked to..." He said nervously, still stroking 'Albert' with a shaking hand.  
  
"So that's where all this stuff came from? You stole it all to keep him from flying into a rage?" Anna asked skeptically.  
  
"Well, yes. But it keeps him so happy, he's really calm as a kitten now that he's surrounded by all this." Douglas pleaded.  
  
"If he's really that sweet then you won't mind letting him out now will you?" Van Helsing asked calmly. Douglas turned quickly to see the Hunter standing on the opposite side of the cage where the lock was, Tojo blade out.  
  
"NO!" Douglas screamed, quickly climbing down and running towards Van Helsing. Anna drew her sword, ready for anything.  
  
Van Helsing had just sawed through the lock as Douglas reached the bottom of his ladder. Still shrieking for him to cease, the distraught scientist shook the ladder violently, causing Van Helsing's hand to slide and nearly catch the squawking pterodactyl across the nose. Albert screeched sharply and batted a wing at the cage. The door swung open, Van Helsing clinging to it for dear life, and the prehistoric creature flew out with a graceful beat of its wings. Anna cried out and leapt out of the way as Albert landed, rolling and coming up in a crouch, sword held at the ready. It was her cry that alerted Albert to her presence; instantly, he seemed entranced. With a low clicking noise in his throat, he moved closer to Anna, nudging her gently with his beak. He clicked more to himself as he continued to nuzzle her, clearly pleased. Anna, knocked over by the force of his nudging, was anything but pleased. She looked more disgusted.  
  
Quickly, she began to back away on all fours, forced to abandon her sword. Confused, Albert followed her. This certainly didn't help; Anna leapt to her feet and began to full on sprint away, Albert screeching mournfully and following. He cornered Anna at last and reared up to his full height, wings spread out. He crowed happily at his new discovery. What a 'pretty' he had discovered, and now, with his triumphant yells and the way he spread his wings, everyone would know that this 'pretty' was his.  
  
Of course, to Gabriel and Douglas, it didn't look like he was celebrating.  
  
Van Helsing leapt off the ladder and clung to the other part of the curtain, sliding down as fast as he could. He hit the ground running and reaching for his crossbow. When he was within meters of the pterodactyl, it was armed and ready to shoot...  
  
At the same time, Douglas was running towards Albert, his creation. His _child_, he viewed it as. In his hand he carried a beautiful diamond, sapphire and citrine necklace, Albert favorite thing. He always had it on him, since it calmed the beast so. If he could get there before that murderous 'Knight,' he could show them that Albert really was a gentle creature....  
  
But he wasn't there before Gabriel. He was there at exactly the wrong time.  
  
Just as Van Helsing was ready to fire and Douglas was running with the necklace, Albert decided now was the time to carry off his prize. One clawed foot wrapped around Anna's waist and he beat his wings in preparation for flight, but the gypsy princess wouldn't allow that. She beat at him fiercely with both hand and foot, causing him to bark sharply and start to lower her. To both Van Helsing and Douglas, the situation looked like it had gotten worse.  
  
"Noo Albert! Look here, look here!" Douglas shouted, leaping in front of Albert. With one hand, he waved the necklace wildly so it caught in the firelight and sparkled. Intrigued, Albert began to calm... but at that exact moment, Van Helsing fired.  
  
The bolt struck Albert in the shoulder, right by his beating wing. The pterodactyl shrieked in pain, his sharp beak diving forward and right into his creator's chest. Douglas froze abruptly as blood welled from the wound and from his mouth, slowly sinking to his knees when the beak was withdrawn. He slumped down there, eyes frozen in a state of shock and hurt. Anna, although in the creature's grasp, could still pity him. He had been killed by his own dream turned nightmare...  
  
Albert was equally shocked. Screaming something awful at the sight of all the hideous blood, he dropped his 'pretty' and scrambled away clumsily, destroying things as he went. Van Helsing rushed forward and helped Anna up, his arm around her waist. It was then that Albert turned, thinking once more to take his prize to safety with him... and then he saw the other man's hands on what was _his_. Bloody fury rose in him and screeching, he charged.  
  
One-handed, Van Helsing fired his crossbow. A stream of bolts hit the pterodactyl in the chest, but did not kill him. In fact, the wounds healed.  
  
"Why isn't it working?" He shouted as they ducked. Albert soared into the air and turned back, clearly coming back for another round.  
  
"He has vampire blood in him and God knows what else!" Anna shouted back.  
  
"Then I think it's time to go!" Was Van Helsing's shouted reply. Releasing Anna, they both made a mad dash for the way they'd come from. Albert followed, his battle cry bugling through the wide hall. He was almost there, almost... All his hopes were stopped dead as a solid wood door slammed into him, sending him spiraling back to the ground.  
  
Outside that door, Van Helsing and Anna slammed down the slab that locked it and then continued to sprint until they were far away from it, back in the main room. There, they collapsed against the wall and rested a moment.  
  
"We have to figure out a way to kill him. Even the bolts in the chest didn't work, and those worked on Marishka last time." Van Helsing panted.  
  
"Didn't Douglas say something about special darts he made?" Anna said breathlessly, rubbing her ribs. Albert had been none too gentle in clutching her as he tried to fly away, and had almost broken a rib when Van Helsing shot him since he clutched her even harder.  
  
"You're right..." He licked his lips and was about to say something else, but was interrupted by the sound of primordial shrieks and wood splintering. Next they could hear the beating of wings in the corridor they'd escaped through. Both sprang to their feet and ran to the door that separated them from the prehistoric menace, slamming it shut and locking it as they had done before.  
  
"He's coming after us." Anna panted, frightened. "I thought he'd just rampage around the Castle!"  
  
"No, he's coming for you." Van Helsing corrected, making a sudden connection.  
  
"What?" Anna asked, bewildered.  
  
"Remember what Douglas said? 'He likes pretty things?'" He reminded her.  
  
"Oh no, no, no-"  
  
"Yes, he happens to think you're one of those pretty things. And I don't think he'll hurt you because of that..." The Hunter trailed off, deep in thought. "Yes. It'll work." He said finally.  
  
"What will?" Anna hissed angrily.  
  
"I need to find the darts to kill him, I can't have him chasing after me while I do that. What we need is a diversion." He said, pursing his lips. "If we can find the room one of the Brides lived in..."  
  
"I know where Marishka's is. I tried attacking it once when she was first sired." Anna supplied.  
  
"Lead me to it. I have an idea."

* * *

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Anna's voice muttered from behind the screen.  
  
"It's a diversion. What's so spectacular?" Van Helsing called back.  
  
"Gabriel, you don't get it. _I am dressing to impress an obsessive dinosaur_!" She growled.  
  
"Would you rather me do it?" He chuckled in spite of himself.  
  
"I'm sure you'd look better in this than me." Anna quipped, coming out from behind the screen she had changed in. When he saw her, Van Helsing had to work hard so that his jaw didn't drop while other parts of him rose.  
  
She was dressed in a long, black silk dress with no shoulders or sleeves. It was tight until her waist, where it swirled out beautifully, thanks to the multiple layers underneath it. Across the bodice was a dazzling pattern of gold beads. She had pulled all her hair up in an elegant chignon; on her neck she wore a huge diamond necklace that not only covered all her throat but dripped across her chest in chains. (A/N-- Think of Satine's necklace in Moulin Rouge.)  
  
"I don't think an angel would look better in that." He said before he could stop himself.  
  
"Well it was made for a vampire clearly. I can't bloody breathe in it!" She hissed.  
  
"Stop fussing and remember our plan." Van Helsing chided her gently.  
  
"Yes, yes I know it well. I've only cursed it every five seconds. I go and find Albert and calm him down and keep him occupied in the room that was once the lab. You'll go and find the dart, then come back and kill him." Anna said with an eye roll.  
  
"See? It's simple and painless." Van Helsing reassured her as they left the room.  
  
"Painless for you! You aren't in a corset!"

* * *

Anna had plenty of time for complaining once she and Van Helsing parted ways as the entrance. She could've screamed her frustrations with the universe and still would've been able to hear the destruction Albert was wreaking on Castle Frankenstein. But she forced herself to be calm. She was a warrior, and this was just another method of fighting. Fighting. That reminded her of something.  
  
"Van Helsing!" She called out. He turned to her. "What do I do if he attacks me? This isn't exactly meant for fighting."  
  
"Find a way to get my attention. The darts must be near by, so I'll probably be able to hear you." He called back.  
  
"How do I get your attention?" She pressed.  
  
"Be creative. Play the damsel in distress!" He said with obvious exasperation. Her pig-headed stubbornness was in full view now in a desperate attempt to get out of this.  
  
"Oh. Okay." She said slowly. Before she could say anything else, Van Helsing disappeared. With a determined stride, she set off to find Albert.  
  
Following the chain of his chaos was simple, and she quickly found him exactly where she wanted him, in the room that used to be Frankenstein's lab. There was some more equipment there now, implements that Douglas must've brought. Albert was perched on one of these, his back to Anna.  
  
"Al-bert?" She said hesitantly, stepping forward. The pterodactyl turned to regard her quietly, then gave a happy shriek as he realized what it was. His pretty! She had returned! He squawked joyfully and landed in front of her, clearly mesmerized by all the sparkles across her neck and chest. "Hello, my friend. I am sorry I had to leave you earlier." She said nervously. God, she would kill Van Helsing for this later... she was sweet-talking a prehistoric bird who had just recently killed its creator. Albert clicked to himself and angled his head towards her. Gently, she laid her hand on his beak, running it up and down as she had seen Douglas do. "I... didn't think I looked good enough for you. I wanted to i-impress you." He made a sound somewhat akin to purring and stepped a little closer even so that his beak rested against her shoulder.  
  
"I am sorry for what happened earlier too. We did not mean to hurt you." Anna said mechanically, her eyes wide. Her personal space had just been invaded by a flying lizard. Ooh, she wasn't just going to outright _kill_ Van Helsing... he would die oh-so-slowly.... He made the purring noise again, nuzzling her as he had before. She tried not to gulp. "It would be a sin to hurt so beautiful a creature. And it would be heaven to live with one such as yourself." Castrating him was now on the list of tortures she was compiling. Albert's head shot up, his eyes wide with something that may have been surprise and then joy. Anna's stomach plummeted. How smart had Douglas said this bird was?  
  
He began to reach for her with one clawed foot, and she stepped quickly away. They kept repeating this strange dance all across the room until Albert got frustrated and took off, knowing it would be harder for her to avoid him in this way. Surely enough, he got her and carried her over to where he had been perched before. Anna could do nothing. But watch him, wide-eyed.  
  
"Oh no." She squeaked. "Now I'm in trouble. Okay, okay, I need to get his attention. Damsel in distress.... How do you play the damsel in distress?" She cried suddenly. With a happy coo, Albert continued to nuzzle her, staring especially at the necklace she wore. It was not in such a convenient place for that. "Um, help? Help. Help. _Help_!" She screamed finally. There was no reply...

* * *

Van Helsing was nearby the lab room, stalking through the shadows as though he expected Dracula to pop out of nowhere and attack him once more. But the second he heard Anna's calls for help, he abandoned his fears.  
  
"I'm coming Anna!" He shouted back. It was then he saw the darts Douglas had spoken of in a small leather case, along with a small gun evidently meant for firing them. He seized both quickly and began to run out of the room. The floor he was running on was smooth and level, unlike the catwalks above the lab that the door led onto. Which was exactly why Van Helsing tripped and fell right as he entered the lab room, the darts scattering across the catwalk ahead of him.  
  
"Damn!" He cried, struggling to his feet and beginning to chase down the rolling darts.  
  
Anna looked up hopelessly at Van Helsing, scrambling for the fallen darts. But what could she do about it? She was playing the damsel in distress. Albert saw Van Helsing too, and shrieked angrily before bending down to nudge Anna with his head and wrap his wings around her in a sort of 'I won't let him hurt you' motion.  
  
"The _hell_ with being the damsel!" Anna said suddenly. She drew back one arm and socked Albert on the face as hard as she could.   
  
He squawked angrily and began to fly away, dropping Anna onto the catwalk just a few meters from Van Helsing. She clung onto the railing for support as he shook it with his landing, her eyes just daring him to come closer. He did, walking towards her on all fours. He cawed with confusion at her sudden violence and as she raised her arm to punch again when he got too close, he backed quickly away, flapping his wings. The force sent the darts, which Van Helsing had just collected and was trying to load into the small gun, flying all over again. Cursing, he was forced to start all over again. Anna groaned at the sight.  
  
But she didn't have much other time for complaining anymore. Albert was coming towards her once more, and this time he didn't look all that happy. She began to run backwards, always keeping her eye on him. Suddenly, she was flat on her back, having tripped over her high-heeled shoes. A she looked up at the approaching dinosaur, she realized that what had just made her trip might end up saving her.  
  
With a fierce cry, she pulled off one of her stilettos and rose to her feet, leaning against the railing for support. When Albert got within striking distance, hissing madly, she struck down at him with the shoe-turned-weapon. He screamed his pain as the heel connected with his face again and again, finally catching him on the eye. The pterodactyl reared up and froze, still screeching awfully. But his momentary stillness gave Van Helsing just the time he needed to aim the gun and fire into his back.  
  
Albert turned slowly to face his murderer. He howled once more, taking one faltering step towards the Hunter on a vengeance mission that quickly failed. Van Helsing fired once more into his chest, and the prehistoric creature fell at last, shaking the catwalk with his death throes.  
  
Anna stood slowly began to make her way over to Van Helsing, being forced to remove the other heel as she stepped over Albert. There was pure, utter fury in her eyes, and while it was obviously meant to frighten him, Gabriel was having issues with not laughing. A few ill-fated giggles had indeed escaped his lips by the time the gypsy princess got there.  
  
"Next time, you play the damsel in distress!" She shouted, practically flinging the heels at him. Laughing in earnest now, he caught them then flung them to the side in favor of pulling Anna into his arms.   
  
"You know, I don't think I'll ever quite forget the sight of you beating a dinosaur over the head with a shoe." He chuckled. As insufferable as he had been that night, Anna couldn't help but melt into him a little, closing her eyes as he bent towards her...  
  
Behind them watched a pair of jealous amber eyes. His pretty! That man was stealing it! Just before Anna and Gabriel could kiss, the dying pterodactyl made one last attempt. He leapt up and at the two, intending to rip them apart. Still embracing, the two Hunters fell to the catwalk to avoid him. Van Helsing raised one hand, the one that held the gun, and fired at the raging primordial menace. He hit him dead on in the forehead this time; the shock ripped through Albert's body. He screeched again, one final cry of anger, before spinning wildly out of control and into a final frenzy. His claws and beak caught the supporting wires of the catwalk, snapping them with ease. The structure tipped and spun wildly, sending Albert on his final flight towards the ground, where he promptly burst into dust.  
  
Van Helsing caught onto the far railing of the catwalk and dangled there, Anna still held close against him. She cried out suddenly as she slipped out of his arms and began to fall.  
  
_"Anna!"_ He shouted, managing to catch her hand. But he had been forced to lean down to do so, and as he looked back up at the hand still on the railing, he saw that it was slipping and fast.  
  
"Don't let go of the railing!" Anna shouted up. She knew she couldn't pull herself back up, and she would've let go of Van Helsing's hand so he could right himself again if he hadn't been clutching it so tightly.  
  
And then it happened. His strength failed them and he slipped, sending them both following Albert on a downward spiral for the floor.  
  
They crashed into it hard, and rolled away from each other with the shock. Both lay still for a few moments before Van Helsing pulled himself shaking to his hands and knees and crawled over to Anna.  
  
"Are you alright?" He asked, breathing harshly. She nodded weakly as he pulled her onto his lap, cradling her against his chest. "I am... so sorry...." He whispered ardently into her hair. It almost sounded like he was about to cry, and in truth he felt like doing so.   
  
He felt sickened and horrible, like the worst and meanest crawling thing on the earth. In the first instants when he and Anna had fallen, he had seen images in his head. Not the happy ones she usually filled him with, but ones of her falling wrong and breaking her neck or back. Ones of him cradling her like this, but instead of her nestling closer and breathing gently against his neck, she was limp and already becoming cold. And there were other visions, other ways she could've died all along this mission. That vampiress could've snapped her neck. She could've fallen off the mountaintop when they were trying to get into the warlock's fortress. The pterodactyl could've crushed her in an instant, she had no defense. And now this. Just because he had to be funny, he had angered their adversary one final time and sent them both flying to the ground in a near fatal fault.  
  
What made him feel the worst was this: he had dragged her here and put her in danger countless times fighting for a cause she wasn't even aware of. She had no idea that she was risking her life for Carl's return to it. He'd been lying to her all this time, and put her in life-or-death situations...  
  
"What for, Gabriel?" She asked, resting her head on his shoulder. God, it felt good just to relax there, against his warmth. Why did she have to play the damsel to receive such heavenly treatment?  
  
He wanted to break down and tell her everything then and there. Explain to her why they were there and beg for her forgiveness and love, tell her all about the wonderful plans he had in his head for them once they had Carl back. How could she resist such sweet temptations if she truly loved him?  
  
_If_ she loved him.  
  
He went cold suddenly. She might not love him anymore, if she did at all, if she knew the truth of their visit. Why risk her trying to stop him now, when he was so close to achieving his goal...?  
  
"I almost got you killed." He replied in a half-lie. That was just the tip of the iceberg...  
  
"It's fine, I came here of my own free will." She reassured him, pulling back enough to see his face.  
  
"The truth is Anna..." Van Helsing trailed off. Wretched liar that he was, how could he even speak those words to her. He stood and walked a few feet away, his back to her. Anna stood as well, watching him carefully. A shadow lingered over him, some doubt was gnawing at him. And he wasn't going to let her see it, as he refused to allow her to see any of his other demons. How could she help him when he clammed up like that? But she remained silent, willing to take what he would give her in his words.   
  
"The fact is, Anna, I hate myself right now for putting you in danger, because I want so much to not even _report_ back to the Order about this mission. I want to just disappear into the Transylvanian wilderness in their eyes and let them forget about me so I can stay here with you." He turned to face her. "You make me want to stay, when for so long I've been running. You make me forget about whether I have a past or not because when I'm around you... I actually start to believe there's hope for the future. And... I wanna keep that. I don't want it to die on me like it almost did a lifetime ago."  
  
"Me too." Anna smiled, standing close to him.   
  
Slowly, he wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned down towards her, kissing her softly at first. And then they were both swirled away on its wings, deepening it to match their sudden passion. On an impulse, he dipped her down as though they were dancing, a motion that made Anna's stomach leap and her heart pound.  
  
They didn't know how long they simply reveled in each other's warmth, but eventually wounds began to throb and they broke apart. Hand-in-hand, cloaked in silence, they went back to Marishka's chambers so Anna could change back into her regular clothes. And then they left Castle Frankenstein, mounted their horses, and road off back to Budapest. Pieces of what had happened in those places before lingered with them still, but so did visions of what might yet be.

* * *

For a long time that night they talked in their room at the inn. Van Helsing shared his ideas- minus Carl -with Anna, as well as glimpses of his past and things that he had always wanted to tell her. She talked to him about how she had lived her life, and the strange connection she felt with him upon the minute of their meeting. She said that she felt not like she knew him already, but like she should know him. When she had said 'Don't look at me like that.' and turned away from him at the windmill, it had been because she felt like she had seen that face somewhere before and it irritated her that she could not remember where.  
  
But eventually Anna drifted off and Van Helsing climbed carefully out of her arms. He backed into a corner of the room just to watch her sleep, a smile on his face. He knew he should probably be meeting with the Wavewriter, but decided to blow it off for one night. He had lied to her enough.  
  
"She's beautiful, isn't she?" asked a sultry voice.  
  
Van Helsing's eyes snapped open and his hand went instantly to one of his pistols. He hadn't even realized that he had dozed off too, and now saw that the golden haired woman he had met upon arriving in Budapest was kneeling beside Anna, stroking her hair. There was a wicked smile on her face that was probably meant to frighten him, but he knew to trust her now.  
  
"Yes she is." He said calmly, dropping his hand from his pistol. The woman laughed and clapped quietly.  
  
"You trust me now, don't you! It's amazing what one will do you one's friends." She giggled as she glided closer, removing her cloak. She wore a light blue toga-style dress with gold cord wrapped all around it. She could've been a Greek goddess, but he didn't care. He knew now who he truly loved. "Here is your final reward." She smiled, handing him yet another piece of circular paper with irregular dots. "Now you are ready." She beamed.  
  
"But... I don't understand. You've asked me to prove myself by destroying these evil creatures, but I've been doing that for... the whole of my existence. How was I proving myself?" Van Helsing asked, tucking the piece of paper away with the others.  
  
"I was just trying to see if you trusted me enough to do what I asked and not think that it was a trap. And you needed all those near-death experiences to get all your thoughts in order so that you would be prepared for all the questions I'd raise. You were really quite a mess when you first sought me out." She said. "What, were you expecting me to order you to kill innocents?"  
  
"Well you are reputed to be evil." Van Helsing remarked.  
  
"It depends on how you view me and what I represent. But if I were evil, why would the great Van Helsing come seeking my aid? Or is it that 'anything for a friend' thing? Ah, but I shall trouble you no more with these thoughts I have worked so hard to clear your mind of. Go now and rest, Gabriel Van Helsing. You've a big day tomorrow." She said. Van Helsing had barely blinked when she disappeared.  
  
He sat down in the square of moonlight formed by the window in their room after checking on Anna. Out of his coat he took the three pieces of paper and aligned their edges. They made a perfect circle, although all their dots didn't. Slowly, he rotated it, trying to make sense of its bizarre pattern of dots. But as he blinked, the papers joined flawlessly, as though they had never been cut apart. He blinked several more times to see if anything else would happen, but nothing did. With a tired sigh, he was about to put it away again, when he noticed something MOVING on the paper. Quickly he looked at it again in the moonlight and saw that the dots on the edge were moving into place, forming a perfect circle. Mesmerized, he continued to watch as a few disappeared, leaving just twelve of the dots. Ghostly numbers appeared below the doors, like those on a clock. Van Helsing frowned. Before it had done that, he had recognized that pattern of dots from somewhere...  
  
Then it hit him. The trees he and Anna had stayed in when they were crossing the Carpathians. That WAS the gateway to the Wavewriter's realm! And this would show him where to go from there once they returned to that circle of trees!  
  
"Anna! Anna!" He said urgently, shaking awake the gypsy princess.  
  
"What, what?" She grumbled.  
  
"Get down to the stables! I know where the cult is!"

* * *

A/N-- Weird place to leave off, I know. That chapter was... very weird. Even absurd. So try not to flame me if you thought it was bizarre and stupid! I had fun with it cuz I figured I'd give you guys some fun and fluff, since next chapter (the second to last) Anna finds out that Van Helsing has been lying... and it all goes downhill from there...REVIEW!! 


	23. Chapter 22: Fear of the Dark

A/N-- Hey all!! Wow. My second to last chapter... hard to believe. ain't it? It still feels like just a few days ago I posted the prologue and paced, anxiously waiting for my first reviews...  
  
**magot123**- I was considering doing a sequel to this, but now Im a bit on the fence... I don't have a full plot for it yet. I'm happy to see that it will be missed, however!  
**Irish Anor**- You can't possibly know how happy it makes me to hear you say I'm an awesome writer. I mean, you were my first reviewer and when you didn't like Anorel Tinuviel I went and crawled in a hole. I thought you hated me! but... thanks.  
And yea, you guessed why he said Gabriel instead of Van Helsing. That and the fact that I love the name Gabriel...  
Ohh, I'll miss you! When you get back it'll likely be finished, cuz if I wait too long then --I-- go on vacation!  
You know, I hadn't even realized that was like POTC until you reviewers brought it up... man am I an idiot.... LOL. I hope you get to read this soon!  
**Ragweed**- Wow. I just made one of my reviewers faint. --notices Dracula and sidles up real close-- well, now that we're alone...  
LOL, I'm sorry it's so long!!! but I'm glad it was worthwhile!  
**Dare**- I'm glad you found that chapter weird yet funny... I was just having a ball writing it!  
Heh. Go read 'These Bloody Nights Spent,' another of my stories, if you wanna see my real style. This one is just a very good fluke... LOL.  
You're from Germany?! Niftiness!!! I myself am a quarter German (me dad was born there!) and I'm taking classes to learn the language in High School!  
**sweetdeath04**- ohh yea, suspense!  
**marrokinhas**- Yes I'm thirteen and yup it all goes downhill from here. :-) Of course, not necessarily in the way you think..... And it was gonna be really romantic... but then a twist surprised me at the end and it got delayed till next chappie. Sorry!  
**Anthem82(**)- _**I**_ can't wait to see what happens next!! I myself don't often know!!  
**Jane()-** My reference to 'Martin Luther' in that chapter was to a religious leader of like the 1200's who posted the 20 (or was it 40...?) Theses on a church door and started the church that Martin Luther KING would later preach at.  
**HealerAriel**- (1st review) Yea, Gabriel and Anna do kick ass!!!  
(2nd review) People on fictionpress.com complain about long chappies... hence my phobia.... I'm glad you like my fight scenes. I'm in martial arts and I usually write right before and right after I go, so I get all these cool moves in my head...  
(3rd review) Yea, that chapter was most amusing, ne? And no, she ain't gonna be too thrilled...  
**Eilian Rhoss**- I'm not sure how far you've read, but I'll try and keep up my good work!  
HyperCaz()- Damn, why do Aussies get all the good movies and crap? --grumble--  
  
Ahhhh.... --inhales the scent of Skittles from the empty travel cup she holds in her hand--- Okieday, now that I am high on Skittles I shall write my chappie!! Have fun reading!

* * *

Chapter 22:  
Fear of the Dark  
  
_In passing  
We keep our darkest parts from each other  
Each afraid of blinding the other to the light  
But then nothing changes, nothing grows  
Except the darkness, which,  
Unless brought to light, can only  
Become more black.  
Aren't we living a form of suicide?  
_--"Fear of the Dark" by Verona Dracula (me)  
  
Although both were still throbbing from their various wounds and bruises and the sun was scarce in the sun when they mounted, Anna and Van Helsing left quickly on horseback for the Carpathian Mountains. It seemed that Van Helsing would stop at nothing to reach his goal, driving his horse to the point of nearly collapsing.  
  
"Quickly! Leave the horses here, we don't have time." He commanded as they arrived at the base of the Carpathians. He was off his horse in a flash and clumsily tying it to the lone tree nearby. He didn't want to waste any time at all; the sun was setting now and he wasn't sure when the Wavewriter wanted him there. He hated being left to figure things out for himself like this. That was Carl's job to deduce the time from three pieces of paper that made a circle, two notes signed 'a friend' and two strange meetings.  
  
_Don't worry_, He assured himself. _Before that sun rises again he'll be making you wish he'd stayed dead with his constant chatter.  
_  
"Van Helsing, slow down!" Anna shouted angrily as she pulled her horse to an abrupt stop and tied it next to Van Helsing's. He had already begun to climb.  
  
"Hurry up!" He called back.  
  
"I said _slow down_!" She cried, racing to try and catch up with him.  
  
"And I said hurry up!" He said a little more sharply than he meant to.  
  
"What's the big rush? So we know where they are, should we just rush in?" She insisted, grabbing his arm and turning him around.  
  
"Look, I haven't time to explain it now but we _have_ to hurry!" He said urgently, starting off as fast as possible. Anna gave a small cry of outrage, flinging her hands over her head and following.  
  
This went on and on up the mountain. Thankfully, it was much more sloped and friendly to climbers on this side, or they might've died of sheer exhaustion within the first hour. _I_ _might've_ _died of exhaustion_. Anna thought with weary bitterness as she forced herself to always keep Van Helsing's back in sight. _But him... he's a different story... God, it's like he's possessed_...  
  
Well whatever had taken over the Monster Hunter certainly didn't try to sweep Anna up too. Night had fallen when her legs, however well trained they might be, began to fail her. The wind was biting them both angrily and with the night had come extreme cold. Up ahead, Van Helsing too was shivering and forcefully putting one foot in front of the next. But he didn't seem to entertain any thoughts of stopping soon.  
  
"Gabriel." She called hoarsely. "Gabriel!"  
  
"Yes?" He asked quickly as he turned.  
  
"We have to stop. We won't make it to the top tonight." She insisted, grateful for the respite.  
  
"We have to make it to the top tonight. Please Anna, let's just keep going." He begged.  
  
"You've dragged me across Transylvania and back again with little or no explanation! You either owe me that explanation or a few moments of rest! Or both preferably!" Anna cried. "I don't know what all the secrecy is about and it's driving me mad!"  
  
"I told you, I've figured out where the cult is."  
  
"How?"  
  
"I found a map in Castle Frankenstein." He supplied quickly. God he hated hated hated hated hated lying to her...  
  
"Fine." Anna said in a monotone, forcing herself to keep walking. Van Helsing followed, heavy-hearted.  
  
She hated being so mistrustful and snappish, but there was something in the air, something about the whole day that did not bode well. She felt like killing herself in that moment, seeing the hurt look on Van Helsing's face just before she turned away. But what else could she do? She herself was tormented. Just a day ago, she had been willing to let this man into her life and into her heart. She had thought he had changed, that he was letting down his walls and showing her who he really was. Now she found herself confused and tortured by him again. There was something there, lodged in his soul and in his brain, driving him, maybe even to madness. She wanted to help him so badly...  
  
"What am I doing to myself?" She muttered to herself. Anna felt safe doing so. He would never hear her now, as deep within himself as he was.

* * *

It seemed that there had never been anything but walking. Up and up. Forward always. Feeling nothing. Until white hot flashes of color and pain struck him and threatened to send him flying back to the beginning to do it all over again. But that fear had always been there...  
  
_Gabriel_...  
  
_Shut up._ He told the voice. _Shut up. You aren't important to this. You won't help me get up the mountain.  
_  
_Gabriel...  
_  
_Please leave me alone...  
  
Gabriel...  
_  
_ Leave me here... where am I, again? And why? Why...?_ He knew that it was important to be where he was. It troubled him that he did not know why.  
  
_Van Helsing...  
_  
Wait. He knew that voice.  
  
But just as suddenly as he recognized it, it was gone again and so had the hellish surreal feeling of all that had preceded it. Now his nightmares were rising up to meet him as he was awake, and they were undaunted by daylight. He felt like clawing at his head to make them go away, but he couldn't. He had to keep going. For Carl.  
  
But where had he heard that voice before...?

* * *

A storm was brewing overhead as midnight approached, and several times the wind threatened to knock them clean off the mountain. Whenever she could catch a glimpse of him, it seemed like Van Helsing was frightened of something, even in pain. He kept murmuring to himself, touching his forehead. But his feet would not slow, even when it seemed he'd die from taking just one more step.  
  
"Van Helsing we need to stop. This is madness!" She said to him, seizing his arm and turning him around. For a moment it seemed like he wasn't even aware she was there. His eyes trailed across her face nervously a couple times before registering it.  
  
"I've begun to think the world is madness." He whispered.  
  
"What do you mean by that?"  
  
"It is. It's very stark, actually... Well, the madness and the colors. The colors are stark too." Van Helsing said in the most sensible manner possible. Of course, the fact that he said it sensibly only frightened Anna more.  
  
"Come with me. We need to get out of this cold." She said firmly, taking his hand.  
  
"No, Anna it's fine. I've faced worse, let's go." He tried to pull back.  
  
"No, Gabriel, it is _not_ fine." She insisted. From here she could see something resembling a fold in the mountainside, sufficiently sheltered from the wind. She pulled him over to it and sank down in the snow. He did likewise, suddenly realizing how exhausted he was. But he had to ignore that. For Carl and for the being he was working for. Maybe this was his final test.  
  
Wait, when did he work for the Wavewriter like some slave? The only way to shake off the disturbing and unbidden thought was through more walking, he decided.  
  
"Look, if you're too tired you stay here, I'm going to go-"  
  
"Fight a whole cult by yourself?" She asked. "I don't believe for one second longer that that is what you are out to do. Please... tell me the truth? Because I look in your eyes and I know that what you have been telling me is not the truth."   
  
Her voice went more soft and pleading than she wanted, but she realized that she was tired and she did feel weak. Swept off her feet by that mystery of a man, she had stumbled and she had fallen, and he had whispered to her the soft words that broke her fall, or so she thought. Once they become transparent, lies so easily break. And now that the lie that had broken her fall had shattered and left her broken and bloodied at the bottommost pit of despair. God, she just wanted to die there. She was sick of wondering, not knowing. She was sick of worrying. She had never known love could kill.  
  
"Anna." He said so quietly and with so much emotion that she thought surely he must be dying too. "Anna..." Van Helsing reached towards her and took one of her hands. Although they both wore gloves, they couldn't help but shudder at the contact and he moved closer so he could touch her face.  
  
"Tell me." Anna begged, tears glittering in her eyes as he sat close beside her. The hand on her cheek faltered and his eyes dropped to the snow briefly before returning to her face. "There is no cult." She said softly. She was sure of it now. "What have we been fighting?"  
  
"Nothing, actually. Well, not fighting to kill so much as... to redeem." He chose his words carefully.  
  
"I don't understand... to redeem what?" She asked with confusion. His head dropped entirely. He looked so weary and forlorn, so much more broken than she. He had been broken and remade a thousand times over she knew now. And he was starting to crack again. He took her other hand and gave both a squeeze, then met her eyes again. Such desperate sorrow she never would've thought possible to be expressed by words... but his eyes certainly covered all the bases. "Carl."  
  
"When I was sorting his notes back at the Vatican, I came across the ones on time. There was a reference to the Wavewriter but nothing more." He said slowly.  
  
"You researched it... and decided to come to Transylvania to find it." She said with steadily mounting apprehension.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And you wouldn't tell me?"  
  
"Anna I couldn't. I was too afraid you'd disagree and refuse to help me. I needed you so badly then... to be reminded of why Carl died. I needed something to keep me sane!" He said frantically, his hands clutching hers.  
  
"What made you think I would disagree?" She asked with sudden vehemence, jerking her hands out of his and standing.  
  
"Everything! I was at war with the world in that moment, and you told me in the library it was considered evil because it altered time and fate!" He cried, coming to his feet as well.  
  
"So you thought you'd just lie to me, convince me to come along and help out! Well what was going to happen when you got Carl back? Did you think I wouldn't notice?" She shouted.  
  
"I was going to tell you everything then because you'd be so happy to have Carl back you wouldn't be as harsh on me. The ends justify the means!" Van Helsing's words were torn and hurt, but Anna hardly noticed. He had _lied_. Lied and put them both in danger.  
  
"How do you know what would happen if this worked?" She asked harshly, her arms flung out wide.  
  
"Does it matter? Does it really matter?" He shouted. "I killed my best friend. If you were given a chance to have Velkan or your father back wouldn't you take it? Well fate has been kind enough to give me this chance to get Carl back. And I'll take it. I will get to the top of this mountain and take it."  
  
"Can't you see what it's done to you?" Anna asked in a pained voice. "God, it's taken over you. Do you care about nothing else?" Van Helsing froze, his heart pounding. No, he was doing this of his own free will. That crazy desire to keep moving no matter the costs was just his loyalty to his friend and his determination to have him back...   
  
"You said everything but this in Castle Frankenstein. Let me say it now: I love you because you make me see and feel that the world isn't just revenge and dark and despair. That there could be a life better than the empty, thankless one I had known. That I could laugh in the face of an apocalypse. I doubted my love for you for so long, but now I know it beyond all doubt because I could only feel so much fear and disappointment for someone I loved so much.  
  
"Can't you see that you have completely gone under? The second it tells you to do something you do. And now you're fevered to finish this last task. You'll kill yourself climbing this mountain like you have been!"  
  
"I-I will get to the top and i-it will reward me for my work... it sent me out to kill monsters, and unlike the Order it will reward me.... and give me what I want... instead of threatening me for my mistakes, it will give me a chance to undo them." He finished bitterly.  
  
"What?" Anna asked slowly. They had left the Order very quickly...  
  
"Yes, the Order kicked me out under threat of execution!" He snapped suddenly. "If I ever come into contact with one of their members again they have been given permission to kill me on sight."  
  
"Van Helsing. Gabriel- God we have to get out of here. Please, let's just leave." She begged, her hand on his arm.  
  
"No, I won't leave!" He shouted, backing out of the shelter and into the wind. "I have been called murderer for too long. I can and will undo the one murder I truly committed. I have labored for four hundred years as the Left Hand of God, and now I want some semblance of peace. Everything I told you... about living here with you, fighting monsters... can't you see it being that much more complete with Carl there too? Why can't I have both of you?"  
  
"So you have done all this because I didn't die. Like I was supposed to. And Carl did... and you don't understand why you couldn't change fate." Anna said in a low voice. "Why did you save me Gabriel? Was it because I was dead and you loved me, or was it because you couldn't stand the fact that you had actually murdered an innocent? Was it for your salvation or mine?" She shouted suddenly.   
  
"And why are you so hellbent on doing the same for Carl? He's dead, Van Helsing! You can't change what has been done! Is it because you love him as a friend as much as you care for me? Am I just heartless, can I not see why? Or are you the heartless one, are you the one who doesn't care what may happen somewhere else in the world because you can't live knowing you killed an innocent, your best friend?" Pain rocked Van Helsing to his core. He turned away, burning tears of shame in his eyes. Anna saw that she had gone to far and stood directly behind him. "I know you are in pain, but please stop this! Stop trying to rewrite history, because you can't and if you can the means aren't right! I know you have made a lot of mistakes and lost a lot of people, but stop trying to change your fate and who you are! I would not change either for the world." He turned slowly to face her. Maybe.... she was right. Maybe... it was time to let go. He had to lose someone... and maybe Carl was happier up in heaven. Maybe he just wanted him to be happy too...  
  
"You're right." Van Helsing conceded at last.   
  
All the will seemed taken out of him, all the fight was gone. The Wavewriter had lost its hold on him, and instead thrust on him all the weariness of the world. Now that the adrenaline that had been keeping him alive fled, he could distinctly feel every last ache in his body and in his lower half especially. His legs and feet were so numb it hurt.  
  
Wordlessly, he and Anna began their descent. This turned out to be even harder than they had thought it would be, and for Van Helsing it seemed the hardest. His world was swirling out of order before him, and he stumbled as he stepped. It made Anna nervous and she moved to help him, but he waved her off.  
  
"'m fine." He slurred with a lazy wave.  
  
Anna began to contradict him, but suddenly he wasn't there at all. Her heart pounded wildly as she heard the crash of rocks smacking the mountainside and saw the sudden gap in the snow beside her. Falling to her belly and looking down, she could do nothing but watch Van Helsing fall and scream his name.  
  
Van Helsing felt even more helpless. He felt everything rushing by him, but saw no scenes of his life. No joy, no sorrow, nothing. The last thing that happened before that nothing became complete was his automatic drawing and firing of his grappling gun. Suddenly, the ground didn't seem to be growing any closer....  
  
But the cliff he fell from sure as hell was.

* * *

A/n- I.... didn't expect it to happen that way...? Seriously. That was unexpected. That was not how it was planned. But then again, I didn't plan to write absolute crap tonight... and I did. it got real good, and then it sucked. And then it was OOC. And then it got good again. And then the ending decided to write itself and not come out half as good as it thought it would. --sigh-- damn my muses...

In hindsight, the title probably won't make sense to yall unless you got what I was saying in the opening poem. There was something Anna was gonna say that I ended up editing out mentally and I forgot. Just try and ignore it like the rest of the crap that happened....

The big finale is next, and it promises to be a lot better than this!!! Try to hang in there.... no pun intended.


	24. Chapter 23: The Banishing of Demons

A/N-- I. Hate. That. Last. Chapter. With. A. Passion. But apparently you people don't... Oh well!  
well, here it is. The last chapter. A sequel is up in the air, JSYK. Well, I'm not going to say much.... just do my review responses and leave it at that.  
  
**marrokinhas**- The best? Wow. That's lofty praise! Thank you!  
Oh don't worry, there's plenty o' romance in this chappie! And a sequel has a high chance of being written!  
**Cryptkeeper()-** Ya know, that's probably what I'll do. The first chapter is pretty much written in my head along with the basic plot. I'll just bug you people... LOL.  
**hollyberries230**- Yea, that's what Cryptkeeper meant, i think. I kept _trying_ to get Anna hurt, but I end up hurting Van Helsing! Maybe I'm afraid of killing Anna again... LOL.  
**sweetdeath04**- Heh, I was shocked too when I read my own chapter... that ending was _completely_ unexpected, even for me!!!! You'll see about Carl after this.  
**Anthem82()-** How could you stand _reading_ that chapter, yet alone like it?! I hope Van Helsing doesn't die either... I thought I had this planned out, but it appears I am still at the mercy of my muses.... --sigh--  
**HyperCaz**- LOL, I'd heard your new word before... on your VH fic... WHICH YOU NEED TO UPDATE!! LOL, sorry, I miss reading it...  
Yea, you Aussies are so damn lucky! All the good actors are either from there or from England! All America's got is Brendan Fraser... BUT HA! YOU GUYS STILL HAVE TO GO TO HISTORY!!! And I don't anymore, cuz I'm outta school! BWA HA HA HA HA!  
**HealerAriel**- WOOH! Martial Artists rock! I do Kung Fu....  
Heh, he might be okay...... on some level.... LOL.....  
**Ragweed**- Yes, I hate it when my muses go on a hostile take over!!! It was Carl the Stuffed Purple Dog this time. Grrr...  
O-o you read my story in two days? Wow. LOL! Poor Dracula.... I had one reviewer incessantly snuggling Gabriel-  
Gabriel: Don't even bring it up!! if you do, she might start doing it again!  
Verona: Hey, you're busy falling off a cliff right now!! Go back to your job!  
Gabriel: --mumble, mumble--  
Verona: ANYWAYS! And now I have another reviewer treating Dracula badly!! Oh well, it's a great story, so I'm gonna have to let her get away with it.  
  
Everything gets wrapped up in this chapter... Carl, the Gabriel/Anna... and the mystery voice Van Helsing has been hearing all this time is revealed... So sit beack, relax, and enjoy it.

* * *

Chapter 23:  
The Banishing of Demons  
  
Strangely, he felt nothing. He was nothing, it seemed. Nothing but that black and those hideous things that crept around him with gleaming eyes and snarling smiles. They were mistakes and faults, crimes even, he could see. And mixed in were huge fears and suffocating guilt. But were all these his? Could one man have that many demons haunting him? Memories of murdering both his best friends, not having a past, losing both loves of his life? Lies that still chased him? And could one man change time...? He did not know. He tried for some time to figure it out, then gave in. It didn't matter all that much, at the end. He had been tried and weighed and he was nothing. He was just going to float now, down the lazy river of blackness, and wander....  
  
But this wasn't the end, the fresh wave of agony reminded him.

* * *

Van Helsing sat bolt upright, or tried too. His stomach screamed at him and sent him flying back down onto his back, which wasn't a much better position. He almost cried out at the wretched pain all across his front and flirted with unconsciousness for a moment.  
  
"I'm so sorry!" cried a familiar voice. He turned his head and managed to pry his eyes open, seeing that the speaker was a woman with curly brown hair, pale skin and a thick accent. He knew that face...  
  
"Anna?" He asked through labored breaths.  
  
"Yes, yes its me." She smiled sadly, her hand brushing his hair off his sweaty forehead. "I'm so sorry I hurt you, I'm no good for changing the bandages the doctor put on."  
  
"Wh-what?" He asked slowly.  
  
"You fell on the mountain, remember?" She asked. "You were walking and the snow slid out from under you, carrying you over the side of the cliff. Your grappling gun saved your life, but sent you slamming into the cliffside. It left you all but unconscious and by the time I managed to get you back up I saw you had several broken ribs and cuts all over your front. I got you down as fast as I could and found a roving band of gypsies... we're staying with them. They sent to the nearest village for a doctor, who has been with you for a couple days now. He just left. I can send for him again if-"  
  
"No, it's alright." Van Helsing reassured her hoarsely.  
  
"Do you want something for the pain?" Anna asked, her head tipped to one side.  
  
"No." He responded in a voice barely audible. They sat there, silent, for minutes uncounted, until Van Helsing spoke again. "Where does it go from here, Anna?" He asked in a voice soft as new fallen snow, his eyes not meeting hers. "Where do _we_ go from here?"  
  
"Wherever we will, I guess." She sighed, folding her hands and resting her chin on them.  
  
"But don't you hate me?" He asked fearfully. Now their eyes met, and to Anna he looked like a scared little child who knows he's done something wrong and is afraid of his punishment. She smiled.  
  
"I tried to make myself hate you in those first few hours when you were feverish and delusional and we were waiting for the doctor to arrive. I thought that if I could make myself hate you it wouldn't hurt if you left this world or just left me. I thought that I would stop worrying and your lies wouldn't matter. But..." She laughed quietly. "It just didn't work. I... couldn't hate you. I love you too much, in spite of everything. I love you, Gabriel." She repeated, simply relishing the feel of the words on her tongue. It didn't matter if he didn't repeat them. She just loved to say those words... they made the world feel right.  
  
"I love you too." Van Helsing responded gently, with a smile. If his chest hadn't hurt so horribly, it probably would've swelled up with joy. Anna smiled back and took his hand gently, bringing it up to her face to kiss the palm. "God, it's a weight off my chest now, knowing that you know." He said in a voice rough with pain but full of relief.  
  
"Well that's good. God also knows you don't need anymore weight on it." She laughed. "I should let you sleep. I want you to get one more day of rest before I take you back to the Valerious manor." Her eyes dropped to the floor and she shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "That is... if you still want to go....?" He tipped her face up to meet his gaze.  
  
"Of course I do." He replied. She smiled and gave his hand a squeeze before standing to leave the caravan they were in.  
  
"But Gabriel... promise me something." She said quietly, turning back.  
  
"What?" He asked. He had wanted to say 'anything' but it seemed to far beyond him at the moment.  
  
"Promise me we give this... mission to save Carl up and go somewhere, anywhere, in the morning." She said in the same tone. The look in her eyes, one of softness and pleading, broke him then and there.  
  
"I promise." He whispered back. "Now we should both get some rest... we'll have a long journey to 'anywhere' tomorrow." He finished numbly, closing his eyes to sleep.  
  
He had given up at last. Carl was dead. And there was nothing he could do about it.  
  
He wanted sleep to overcome him along with his hollowness, and crush him as the fall might have. _Should have_... He had been in bed a scarce two minutes when he felt her crawl under the blanket beside him.  
  
"Anna-" He began, rolling over.  
  
"Shhh...." She whispered back, kissing him softly before moving closer to him.  
  
Her warm body curled into the curve of his was not unwelcome. It reminded him of what he had crossed time itself to feel again: love. But in the end, the real sacrifice for his happiness hadn't been his. It had been Carl's. And that unfairness, that inadvertent selfishness on his part, consumed him as quickly as Anna could make him whole again.  
  
At last he managed to sleep, but it was deep and tortured. He was wallowing in a dreamless slumber, hating himself for giving up on Carl. While dreamless, it somehow managed to be utterly terrifying, but he was so deep in it he couldn't wake up. Gradually, he began to hear his name being called. At first it was very quiet, but gradually it grew louder and more frantic.  
  
_That must be Anna calling me._ Van Helsing thought drearily._ I_ _must_ _be thrashing around. I hope I haven't hurt her._ He could not escape his bitterness, even in his dreams.  
  
Suddenly, he was awake. He sat up slightly and looked over at Anna. She was curled up contently, her waterfall of curly hair pooling around her fine-featured face. He reached over and stroked her face lovingly; she murmured sleepily and moved closer to his warmth. Van Helsing frowned, laying back down beside her and cradling her against his chest even though its only covering were the doctor's bandages. He was in a mood for pain and didn't mind the extra weight of her body nearly on top of his. She was obviously asleep. Who had been calling his name?  
  
He felt like pacing back and forth across the moonlit caravan. Even the gypsies, who he was sure had been merrymaking long into the night, were asleep, and the stillness irked him. He wanted to hear and to feel, for Carl's sake. Because Carl would never do those things again...  
  
Why, why can't I save him? He begged to the stars he could not see. Why...? In his head, he imagined himself leaving for the circle of trees he would find the Wavewriter in before Anna awoke and bringing Carl back down with him before lunch. How shocked they'd all be, and how they'd laugh... He almost considered doing it too, but sleep dragged at his eyelids and he began to drift off once more. But before he could slip into slumber, the phantom voice called again, more insistently this time.  
  
_"Van Helsing!"_   
  
The man in question jerked awake again, his heart pounding.  
  
"Who's there?" He called hoarsely.  
  
"It's about time you woke up! I knew you were thick-headed, but I didn't know you were _that_ thick-headed! I've been calling your name for ages and ages!" quipped a familiar voice. Van Helsing froze. "Oh, that's right, you can't see me. Come outside, will you?" Trembling, Van Helsing could do nothing but retrieve his coat and obey.  
  
The gypsy caravans had parked themselves in a semi-circle right in the mountain's shadow. Van Helsing found himself wandering through the snoring bodies and towards a small copse of nearby trees where the moonlight dripped in garlands of silver through the leaves and painted the snow with light. He could see a slight figure waiting there... he rushed forward and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw who it was.  
  
"C-Carl?" He whispered thickly, hardly daring to say the name.  
  
"Well, I suppose you do deserve points for recognizing me." Carl sighed, stepping out of the gloom and into the fullness of the moonlight. His form was very silvery, but almost whole, like it was made of moonbeams meshed together. There was that little smirk that had gotten him in trouble since childhood on his face, that divine spark that death had not been able to wipe away. "You never were known for being the brains. Not to mention that it's early. And I'm dead. All in all, I think you are getting a lot of extra credit for knowing who I am." He nodded to himself, as though thinking.  
  
"Carl...? What... what are you doing here?" Van Helsing murmured, taking a faltering step forward.  
  
"Making sure you don't do something stupid, like I've been trying to do since you left for Romania again." The Friar said dryly. "I _don't_ want you to try and save me, Gabriel."  
  
"Van Helsing?" asked a groggy voice. Gabriel turned slightly to see Anna standing behind him, her hair falling all about her sleepy face. She then saw the ghost. _"Carl...?"_  
  
"Hullo Anna." Carl grinned cheerily.  
  
"Why don't you want me to try and save you..?" Van Helsing asked, confused.  
  
"Two reasons: 1, you can't. The portal the Wavewriter was leading you to was a portal to Hell itself. If you and Anna had walked into it, no one would've been able to save you. 2, because I'm happy, Van Helsing. I'm in heaven. There's so much for me to discover and invent, and I have all the time in the world and all the resources I could ask for!" He said excitedly. He leaned closer, conspiratorially whispering "And best of all, God doesn't really care that I curse or... well, you know. He said he just wanted me to be happy." Carl's expression grew more soft.   
  
"But it wouldn't have mattered to me if I did go to Hell, because _you'd_ be happy, with Anna. I saw you at the depths of human emotion when she died, at the bottommost pitof ultimate despair. I wanted nothing more than to see you smiling again. And when I found out that you weren't happy, that you were tormented and sickened by your actions, I tried to come to you and tell you this sooner. But the Wavewriter already had a hold on you and wouldn't let me. Now it's given up on luring you to your doom and left you to your own devices. The only people who can utilize the Wavewriter's powers are creatures from Hell like Dracula, since they can walk through its flames unharmed, and now that it knows you've been yanked from its grasp it has allowed me into your mind." He laughed. "And believe me, now I'm happy to be dead! I don't have to stick around with you lovebirds!"  
  
"But Carl... I miss you being around, helping me out. Hell, I even miss you just... being _you _and driving me utterly insane. Is there another way? What kind of friend am I to have killed you and not try and undo it?" Van Helsing asked sadly.  
  
"You've already proven yourself a good friend by even thinking to save me. Now be a great friend and let me go." Carl smiled with surprising wisdom and seriousness. But soon that familiar glint was back in his eye. "And don't worry about not seeing me often... I'll chaperone the first night out. And come to the wedding. And the baby shower Oh, and the baptism too! Fist communion-"  
  
"Don't push it Carl!" Anna and Gabriel said in unison, blushing fiercely.  
  
"You know, you're right. I don't have to try and save you. Within two months God will be so sick of you he'll just send you back to us." Van Helsing laughed afterwards.  
  
They fell silent and stood there, watching each other across life and death, a trio of friends severed by the inevitable but bound by love and laughter. Gradually, morning began to come. The air grew a little warmer and night's oppressive black began to lessen. Still they said nothing, but stood there. There must've been some silent exchange of their souls, so private that even they didn't know what was being said. But it's effects were inescapable; it was like some form of a balm, suturing wounds both old and new, cleaning away the stains of tears and blood. It was making again whole things that had remained broken for so long, reweaving shattered souls. It was making happiness out of the dark that had, of late, consumed them wholly. Now, they all were bathed in the dawn of a new beginning.  
  
And then, Van Helsing knew it by the odd sense of closure and the rising bittersweetness in him that it was time to let go. Time to see if this newfound feeling could connect them across life and death.  
  
"See you Carl." Van Helsing smiled, feeling more like laughing at those words than crying at them. It was so ridiculous to be saying any form of a goodbye to Friar Carl. Friends never say goodbye.  
  
"See you." Anna smiled too.  
  
"See you Anna, Gabriel." Carl smiled back.  
  
And then... he was gone. Morning had come and the moon had faded. But there was no vacuum left behind, no aching emptiness anymore; as tendrils of light touched their faces and lit up their eyes, Anna Valerious and Gabriel Van Helsing found themselves feeling very full.  
  
"It's dawn. We have whiled away the whole night." Anna remarked.  
  
"Yes... enough time wasted." Van Helsing smiled. Anna came to stand in front of him; he rested his hands on her shoulders and let one trail up to touch her cheek. "We'll go get the horses. Leave this place." He smiled, cupping her face in his hands. Her return smile made the morning seem all the brighter. "Let's find us an adventure." He smiled more broadly. With that, they kissed, bathed richly in the incandescent light of dawn. A warm breeze lapped around them, and they knew that somewhere, against his will, Carl was letting out a big 'Awwwwwwww....'  
  
"Ah, damn!" Van Helsing swore, pulling back. "My face... it's all smashed up from the fall." He rubbed the cuts and bruises gingerly. Apparently, they hadn't like the intensity of the kiss.  
  
"Are you sure you're ready for _this_ adventure, Mr. Van Helsing?" Anna purred playfully as she watched him nurse his injuries. Her hands ran up and down his strong arms, leaving fiery tremors in their wake.  
  
"Yes," Gabriel Van Helsing smiled, looking around the glade. There were no dark corners anymore, only light. Most all his demons were banished somehow, by one man. "I'm ready."  
  
_--THE END--_

* * *

A/N-- Well... it's over. I hope it wasn't TOO over the top at the end.... I feel I may have overdone or over-dramatized it. And it might seem kinda absurd that just one meeting with Carl would banish _all _his demons, but... in my book, friends can do that. And I said _most all_ anyways.  
  
Wow. That's the first fic I've ever finished...... first large fic, that is. I did finish one of my (better) LOTR fics.  
  
I hope yall didn't mind the ending... it was meant to be bittersweet.  
  
Thank you to everyone who journeyed with me on this. Words cannot express how good you've made me feel about myself as an authoress. I hope that, someday, if there's a sequel, I'll see your reviews again. In the mean time... thank you.  
  
Heh. Look at me. I'm still rambling... and being sentimental.... guess I just don't want it to end... someone take the mike from me.... 


End file.
